Noem’s check on abortion meds stuck in legislative committee South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is pushing new rules for medicine-induced abortions that would be among the most restrictive in the country, but a legislative committee on Monday withheld its approval until it can get more information on the proposal.
The state Department of Health‘s proposed rule would add further requirements for women to get abortion pills, including requiring them to visit a doctor a third time and be within their first nine weeks of pregnancy. Only Texas has an earlier ban on abortion medication, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. South Dakota’s rules proposal has been decried by abortion-rights advocates as unconstitutional and an overreach of the governor’s executive power.
The Republican governor initiated the rules change through an executive order, arguing that restrictions on abortion pills are necessary for the safety of women. As the Supreme Court has reexamined Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a nationwide right to an abortion, it has spurred a flurry of state-by-state skirmishes over abortion access. Noem has made it clear she wants abortion eventually outlawed.
Her executive order came amid the Food and Drug Administration permanently eliminating a long-standing requirement that women pick up abortion medication in person. In South Dakota, roughly one-third of abortions have been performed with drugs in recent years............
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/dec/27/south-dakota-gov-kristi-noems-check-on-abortion-me/
