Abortion Polling

Associated Press:

An expert on the politics of abortion says public opinion polling likely will start soon on South Dakota's abortion ban.

Paul Freedman of the University of Virginia, whose expertise includes voting behaviors, said the referral of the ban to a statewide vote in November will be one of the most closely watched ballot issues in the nation.

"I think all eyes are going to be on South Dakota leading up to it," he said.

Freedman said it's not clear from past abortion questions just where South Dakotans stand on the matter.

"My expectation is we'll begin to see some statewide polling on this referendum per se," he said. "It's not clear to me that we can infer from past abortion questions about where South Dakota stands - the majority of South Dakota. It's not clear that we can map that onto voting in this particular referendum."