Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight
Organizers of the campaign to enshrine abortion rights in the South Dakota state constitution announced Friday that Democratic former lawmaker, former magistrate judge and Watertown lawyer Nancy Turbak Berry will lead a new group supporting the effort.
Turbak Berry will chair the Freedom Amendment Coalition to support the Nov. 5 ballot question that would reinstate abortion rights in the state. The announcement came from Dakotans for Health, the ballot question committee that gathered the thousands of signatures required to put the measure on the ballot.
Turbak Berry served as a lawmaker for four years in the 2000s and has been an outspoken advocate for reproductive rights, open government and privacy rights.
The issue motivated her campaign for the Legislature after lawmakers passed an abortion ban in 2006. Voters repealed the law later that year and Democrats gained legislative seats for two consecutive elections.
The semi-retired lawyer and founder of Turbak Law Office introduced unsuccessful bills during her legislative tenure to include contraception drugs and devices under health insurance. In 2008, she was invited to give the commencement speech at Presentation College before the institution rescinded the offer because of her position on abortion, according to news reports at the time.
“I have never really been interested in politics. I hate partisan politics. I’m interested in public policy,” Turbak Berry said. “This has pretty much always been an issue that prompts me to get involved. Then I have to hold my nose and deal with politics in the process.”
As chair of the new coalition, Turbak Berry said her focus is to “tell the truth about the crushing injustice of South Dakota’s current anti-abortion law” and to work with groups and people who support the initiative across the state.
Turbak Berry also called on Gov. Kristi Noem to convene a special session of the Legislature to “repeal our extreme abortion ban.” The ban — with one exception to “preserve the life of the pregnant female” — took effect in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The proposed state constitutional amendment would legalize abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy but allow the state to impose limited regulations in the second trimester and a ban in the third trimester, with exceptions for the life and health of the mother.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood have said they don’t plan to support the constitutional amendment, due to what their local leaders described as the amendment’s hasty drafting and lack of adequate input from stakeholders. Turbak Berry said she is focused on local groups, such as lawyers, medical professionals and others who support the amendment.
“It’s about women’s reproductive freedom. We had it. They took it away. We want it back,” she said.
Turbak Berry is remembered as a legislator who used her legal background and debating skills to stand out as one of 18 female lawmakers at the time (including then-legislator and current Gov. Noem) in a Legislature with 105 seats.
Gary Hanson is a Democratic former state senator from Sisseton who served as assistant minority leader at the time. He remembers Turbak Berry as someone who worked across the aisle and was “well schooled” on each bill. Hanson said Turbak Berry’s choice to return to the South Dakota political fray is significant for Democrats.
“I think it’s good for the Democratic Party,” Hanson said. “A lot of the issues she was fighting for out there are Democrat-involved. It’s refreshing to see her active again.”
Turbak Berry has practiced law in Watertown since 1982 and has two sons who are taking over her law firm.
The Life Defense Fund, which is opposing the abortion-rights ballot question, is planning a legal challenge against the validity of the measure’s petition signatures. Co-chair Leslee Unruh issued a statement to South Dakota Searchlight referencing Turbak Berry and Rick Weiland of Dakotans for Health.
“Nancy Turbak Berry and Rick Weiland need to acknowledge the forgotten woman hurt by abortion and dignity of all human life,” Unruh said, in part.