South Dakota Gov. Christie Noem said Sunday that her state will prosecute doctors who perform abortions and work to restrict women’s access to abortion pills.
South Dakota is one of 10 states with “trigger laws” that declared abortion a criminal offense shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to quash the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which called for the procedure for women. established the right.
Noem, a Republican, said South Dakota would prosecute doctors, not women, who violate its law.
“We’ll continue to debate how we can support these moms and what it really means to make sure we’re never prosecuting moms in a situation like this,” Noem said CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” ,[Prosecution] There will always be a focus on doctors who intentionally break the law to perform abortions in our state.”
The Supreme Court – while ruling in the Mississippi case banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy – Roe v. Wade, allowing individual states to prohibit or ban the practice.
In South Dakota, all abortions are illegal except those deemed necessary to save the mother’s life. There are no other exceptions, including rape or incest.
CBS’s Margaret Brennan asked Noem if South Dakota plans to restrict access to abortion pills, explaining that Attorney General Merrick Garland had warned states about preventing women from receiving the drug. , which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Noem said South Dakota’s state legislature does not believe that such telemedicine abortion should be available “because it is a dangerous situation for individuals who are under medical supervision.”
Brennan asked if South Dakota would overrule the FDA and decide what drugs residents of the state could obtain.
“Many of those decisions are made at the state level, they absolutely are. That’s what the states do,” Noem said.
