For the first time, the South Dakota State Medical Association is taking sides in the debate over a proposed abortion ban.

The medical association is publicly opposing initiated measure 11, because it might restrict communication between doctors and patients.

Dianne Heynen has dedicated her life to counseling post abortive women and spent the past two years volunteering for two different abortion bans. She says it was something that caused her a great deal of pain and suffering over the 29 years since she decided to end an unplanned pregnancy when she was 16 years old.

Dianne Heynen says, "We just grabbed on to what we thought was going to be the quickest, easiest way out of the whole dilemma."

Dr. Mary Helen Harris, says South Dakota's informed consent and parental notification laws, already safeguard against many abortions like Dianne's, but she says measure 11 goes too far.

Dr. Harris says, "I think what's at stake here is patients lose their own right to make their own choice and that's why I oppose initiated measure 11."

The South Dakota State Medical Association kept quiet during the abortion ban in 2006, but it came out against initiated measure 11 in its October newsletter. The reason they say is "solely based on the measures provisions that would allow the government to interfere in medical practice."

But Dianne says the government is needed to make sure doctors consider everyone in the room.

Dianne Heynen says, "It isn't just the woman who's pregnant that is his patient. It is her as well as the child."

Monday, the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, which opposes measure 11 will hold a rally downtown Sioux Falls in support of the announcement of the medical association.