On Monday, the last abortion in South Dakota took the life of an unborn child as the last Planned Parenthood abortion center has stopped scheduling abortions. Governor Kristi Noem tweeted: “Abortions have stopped in South Dakota. We have prayed for this day, and now it is here.”
In an official statement issued in January, Noem noted:
The two bills I am signing today are crucial, because they are also protections for mothers. We must remember that abortion has two victims: both the unborn child who loses their life, and the mother who must go through the physical and emotional trauma of the procedure.
Those two bills followed eight others she signed into law the previous year. The first was a “heartbeat” bill similar to Texas’ law; the second was a bill banning so-called “telemedicine” abortions.
Telemedicine abortions were facilitated by two drugs previously available online: mifepristone, which deprives the fetus of nutrients, and misoprostol, which induces labor to expel the remains of the dead baby.
Now, the only time those two drugs may be administered is by a physician licensed in the state following an in-person consultation with the pregnant mother.
But if Roe v. Wade is overturned — the Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is expected momentarily — South Dakota’s “trigger law,” passed in 2015, will ban those abortions as well.
The ending of abortions at South Dakota’s only Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls makes South Dakota the second abortion-free state in the country, after Oklahoma. Texas allows abortions up until a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
Idaho had four abortion clinics, but the Planned Parenthood facility in Boise closed on June 1, and one of the other three is closed for the summer and is not likely to reopen after the Dobbs decision has been rendered.
Pro-abortion states such as Colorado and California are seeking to become abortion “sanctuaries” for mothers determined to end their pregnancies but prohibited from doing so by state laws.
In California, the Democrat-controlled state legislature is presently considering a package of 13 bills that would include paying for the travel costs and accommodations for out-of-state women seeking abortion.
The Biden administration is going further. The White House is considering announcing numerous possible executive decrees that would hinder states such as South Dakota from enforcing its laws. One is allowing the Department of Health and Human Services to suspend a pro-life state’s medical licensing regulations so that abortion doctors could perform abortions in that state regardless of the state’s prohibition.
Another move would be to sue states that prohibit dispensing abortifacient drugs that happen to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Still another is allowing abortions in federal facilities located in pro-life states, such as military bases. That would turn Ellsworth Air Force Base located in Rapid City into an abortuary, outside the reach of state prohibitions.
The war to protect life as stated in the Declaration of Independence — We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness — continues, and will likely increase in intensity if the high court overturns Roe v. Wade.
Related article:
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem Announces Two More Pro-life Bills
