The South Dakota state flag waving along with the national flag of the United States of America. South Dakota is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States
By Michael Pauley
When the managing editor of The Bishop’s Bulletin asked me to pen an article for “Respect Life Month,” my thoughts turned to what was being said in these pages exactly one year ago. In October 2024, the Church in South Dakota was focused on the dire threat posed by Amendment G—the ballot measure that would have created a state constitutional right to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.
Bishop DeGrood’s column that month implored readers, “By voting ‘no’ on Amendment G, which is a matter of Catholic faith and morals and an opportunity to reject death, we demonstrate our respect of life, in this case the lives of unborn children.” Elsewhere in the magazine, the editors appealed for prayers: “… let us storm heaven for the good of our entire state to defeat the abortion amendment. All the angels and saints, pray for us!”
The Catholic faithful certainly did pray, and they also acted. Tens of thousands turned out to vote, and many volunteered to educate their friends, neighbors and co-workers. Catholic institutions—including our dioceses, parishes and lay organizations such as the Knights of Columbus and Catholic Daughters of the Americas—donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to educate voters on why they should vote no on Amendment G.
The result of all this prayer and work (ora et labora) became clear on Election Day: Amendment G was soundly rejected by nearly 59 percent of voters. Among all states that have voted on abortion-related ballot measures in recent years, South Dakota delivered the most robust pro-life victory. Not only did this success protect vulnerable life in South Dakota, it became a source of hope for other states that will be facing abortion-related ballot measures in 2026.
Amendment G was defeated in 62 out of 66 counties. As expected, the votes were close in a few of South Dakota’s more urban counties (e.g., Minnehaha County was 49% yes, 51% no). But the state’s rural counties overwhelmingly opposed the abortion amendment. In 29 rural counties, the percentage of “no” votes exceeded 70 percent. In Douglas County, 87 percent of voters opposed the measure.
The Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke is widely credited with uttering this timeless pearl of wisdom: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” In South Dakota, evil did not prevail because thousands of “good men and women” did something. They internalized the truth that we are not mere spectators of history or, worse yet, its victims. Instead, we make our own history.
In a famous sermon, St. Augustine reflected on our common response to a world in which evil seems to hold the upper hand: “Bad times! Troublesome times! This [is what] men are saying. Let our lives be good; and the times are good. We make our times; such as we are, such are the times.” The results of the Amendment G struggle offer contemporary proof of Augustine’s wisdom. Tens of thousands of South Dakotans made a purposeful decision to “make our times” by embracing the demands of the Gospel of Life through prayer and work. The times we live in are better as a result.
While we rightfully celebrate that abortion is illegal in South Dakota, there is much work that remains to be done. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, numerous pro-life leaders have affirmed that our goal is not only to make abortion illegal—we must also make it unthinkable.
We’ve made tremendous progress in South Dakota, but we can’t say that abortion has become unthinkable. There are still abortion-vulnerable women, and they need our help. Some women are traveling out of state and having abortions in jurisdictions where it remains legal. We also know that dangerous abortion-inducing drugs are illegally distributed in South Dakota.
Moving forward, a two-pronged approach suggests itself. First, we must rally around South Dakota’s pro-life pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) and provide them the support they need to serve abortion-vulnerable women. Consider becoming a financial supporter or volunteer of the PRC that is closest to you. To see a list of PRCs, visit this page provided by South Dakota Right to Life: www.sdrighttolife.org/pregnancyhelp.
Second, we must work to bring about the cultural change that will reduce the demand for abortion. Data on abortion collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tells us that nearly 88 percent of women having abortions are unmarried. Can anyone seriously doubt the nexus between abortion and the abandonment of traditional sexual norms?
The ambitious task before us is to create a new culture of sexual integrity that can replace the broken and dysfunctional social milieu that we’ve inherited from the Sexual Revolution of the late 20th century. In the Church, we should broaden our understanding of what is considered “pro-life” work. When we encourage young people to get married and stay married, that strikes a blow against the abortion culture. When we catechize young people in Christian sexual morality, including Pope St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body,” we equip them to understand the lies emanating from the Sexual Revolution and instead embrace a life-affirming paradigm.
The change described above won’t happen overnight. It demands patience and perseverance. It requires religious, cultural and political leaders who know how to play the long game. The cynic will say it’s impossible, but as recently as a year ago, many of the “smart people” in society told us that stopping Amendment G was impossible. We ignored them—and we won.
