Following the passage of a disastrous abortion ban in South Dakota, the Women’s Medical Fund and other abortion-rights activists are calling for pro-choice Americans to boycott all tourism in the state. The abortion ban, which has passed the legislature, is expected to be signed by Governor Mike Rounds (R), and then to face immediate legal challenges that anti-abortion activists hope could lead to a Supreme Court case that overturns Roe v. Wade. Anne and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Fund officers, said that “we can do without Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, and the Corn Palace,” with Anne Gaylor adding “We are encouraging all groups who care about women’s rights to urge their members to bypass South Dakota.”
A similar boycott produced results in 1990, when the National Organization for Women (NOW) and other women’s rights organizations chose to boycott Idaho potatoes to protest restrictive abortion laws. Idaho’s then-governor vetoed the bill rather than face the economic consequences. When asked about the tourism boycott, NOW president Kim Gandy said, “The actions of the South Dakota Legislature affect women outside of that state. It would not surprise me if women from around the country don’t want to take their families to South Dakota.”
