South Dakotans will be voting on a critically important ballot issue, “Amendment G,” in the upcoming November election.

If passed, Amendment G would enshrine in our Constitution the right to end the lives of unborn babies through induced abortion procedures with “no prohibitions,” through the first 13 weeks of their developing lives.

Heaven forbid that it should pass.

In unborn babies, a "pipe-shaped" heart is formed during the sixth week and begins to beat with one chamber in week seven. The lungs, liver, pancreas and thyroid gland also begin forming in week seven. By week nine, well-defined fingers and toes are evident and the heart's general construction is complete. Unborn children begin to suck their thumbs, jump, "squint to close out light, frown, swallow" during the ninth to 10th weeks. Tiny bones begin to form in the arms and legs, and vocal cords begin to develop in the 13th week.

The South Dakota Department of Health “2022 Report of Induced Abortions” lists the “multiple reasons” officially given for induced abortions. The most common reason stated in 63.9% to 70.4% of the cases (2018-2022): “mother did not desire to have the child.”

The next most common reason (46.4% to 51.8% of the cases): “mother could not afford the child.”

During 2018-2022, 75.3% of aborted babies were of “gestational age” 10 weeks or younger, well within the first trimester. Amendment G would consecrate in our South Dakota Constitution right to abort babies on this type of scale — unending, and with “no prohibitions.”

Amendment G has no regard for the God-given innocence and purity of unborn babies.

President Ronald Reagan stated in Human Life Review, 1983: “Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves.

Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide. My Administration is dedicated to the preservation of America as a free land, and there is no cause more important for preserving that freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning.”