n the middle of America, an important battle has been fought in the abortion wars
In 2006, the South Dakota Legislature voted to ban abortion with an eye towards overturning the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.
Grassroots campaigns sprang up from the prairies to the Badlands to the Black Hills to put House Bill 1215 on the 2006 ballot in hopes of overturning the law. Others marched to defend the bill.
Nine months later, after a bitter campaign and raucous street protests, the small state's voters defeated the abortion ban, 56% to 44%.
The story was not over. Another abortion ban appeared on the 2008 ballot, this time with the rape and incest exceptions that were key to the ban's defeat in 2006. But that, too, went down to a 10-point defeat.
South Dakota, once poised as the launching pad for the case that could overturn Roe, now is a poisoned well for any efforts to ban abortion – either in the Legislature or at the ballot box.
In Unplanned Democracy: America's First Vote on Abortion, a South Dakota journalist examines the events that led up to this dramatic shift, shows you who made it happen and chronicles how voters sidetracked a bill intended for the U.S. Supreme Court. The film does not take a position on abortion but rather examines how moving through the political process changed the debate around this hot-button issue.
To prepare for the next round of battles, you need to understand what happened in South Dakota in 2006 and 2008. Unplanned Democracy tells that story.
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Unplanned Democracy: America's First Vote on Abortion
A balanced look at what happened, who made it happen and how the story didn't end when the ballots were counted.