Abortion opponents energized in key U.S. state
By Carey Gillam
Reuters
Wednesday, October 11, 2006

SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota (Reuters) - Kim Shemon crooks an elbow around her four-month-old daughter and keeps a wary eye on her four-year-old son as she puts a donation on the table and picks up a "Vote Yes for Life" sign for her yard.

The busy mother is part of a surge of support for South Dakota's new ban on abortion, rallying to defend the law in a referendum on November 7.

"I'm just very passionate about the right to life" Shemon said. "I've adopted both my kids. I'm thankful their birth mom chose life."

Widely seen as the most restrictive abortion law in the United States, the South Dakota law has shaken abortion rights groups and emboldened their opponents, making this wind-blown farm state ground zero in the U.S. war over abortion. the rest