SIOUX FALLS, S.D.(South Dakota Searchlight) — A lawsuit against South Dakota’s abortion-rights ballot question won’t end before voting begins, according to rulings issued Tuesday.

A Minnehaha County judge declined to dismiss the litigation, with a trial set to begin Sept. 23, three days after early voting starts.

The abortion rights measure, Amendment G, will be on the Nov. 5 general election ballot regardless of the outcome. That’s because the case wasn’t decided by Aug. 13, the deadline to certify copies of all ballot questions to county auditors. By then, South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson’s office had reviewed petition signatures for Amendment G and certified it for inclusion on the ballot.

The seven-day trial in the lawsuit, which challenges the validity of those petition signatures, could affirm the measure’s place on the ballot or invalidate it. An invalidation of the measure would negate the votes cast for and against it.

Life Defense Fund, an anti-abortion organization led by Dell Rapids Republican Rep. Jon Hansen, sued the amendment’s sponsor Dakotans for Health in June, saying the group ran afoul of several provisions of state law on petitions.

Dakotans for Health had hoped to see Judge John Pekas toss the case a second time after the South Dakota Supreme Court overturned his initial dismissal of the lawsuit.

Read the full story at www.southdakotasearchlight.com.