SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — South Dakota voters on Tuesday decisively rejected the toughest abortion ban in the nation, repealing a law that subjected doctors to five years in prison if they terminated a pregnancy for any reason except to prevent the woman's death.
Abortion-rights supporters erupted in whoops and cheers as the returns scrolled across a television screen in their temporary headquarters at a hotel ballroom. They had relied on money and volunteers from across the nation to defeat the ban -- and said they hoped the vote would reverberate far beyond this sparsely populated, socially conservative state.
"People said we were crazy to put this on the ballot in South Dakota, but you know, we did it -- and we won!" said Kate Looby, a Planned Parenthood lobbyist. "If you can't win an abortion ban in South Dakota, most states are going to be very hesitant to try this. We're not seen as a bastion of liberal thinking out here."
But supporters of the ban said the vote settled nothing -- not nationally, and not in South Dakota. They fully intend, they said, to be back again next year, pressing the same cause.
"This is a marathon, and we have lots of energy left," said Leslee Unruh, the campaign manager. "We can do this again if we have to. We're in it for the long haul."
The ban lost 55% to 45%.
Another closely watched ballot measure in South Dakota -- a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage -- passed. Bans on same-sex marriage were poised to pass easily in Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Colorado, Idaho and Wisconsin.
"This shows that people do turn out to uphold marriage," said Carrie Gordon Earll, a spokesman for the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, which supported the marriage amendments.
In Arizona, voters were rejecting the gay-marriage ban. If the results hold, Arizona voters will be the first to defeat a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage; 26 other states have amendments.
The amendments have been broadly worded to invalidate not only same-sex marriage, but also domestic partnerships. Opponents of the ban argue that the broad wording affects heterosexual couples as well as gay and lesbian couples; for instance, they warned voters that unmarried senior citizens living together could lose the right to visit each other in the hospital.
