Another governor is set to establish laws criminalizaing abortion in their state following Texas' pro-life victory on Wednesday.
The Western Journal pointed to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem who took to Twitter on Thursday to announce efforts that her state is moving in the same direction as Texas. The Western Journal said that if South Dakota bans abortion as well, President Joe Biden would be having "another pro-life law to take on." Biden has actually condemned the Texas' pro-life victory out of his "deep commitment to abortion."
"Following the Supreme Court's decision to leave the pro-life TX law in place, I have directed the Unborn Child Advocate in my office to immediately review the new TX law and current South Dakota laws to make sure we have the strongest pro life laws on the books in SD," Noem said.
The Heartbeat Texas Act or Senate Bill 8, came into effect Wednesday after the Supreme Court ignored and rejected the emergency appeal filed by Planned Parenthood and American Civil Liberties Union on Monday to stop its implementation. The Supreme Court did not act on the request until after the law was already in effect.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed last May 19 SB8, which abortions on pregnancies six weeks and beyond once a heartbeat has been detected. ACLU and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit thereafter in the district court against the state alleging SB8 violates the constitution.
Noem is one among a dozen Republican governors who have called on the Supreme Court last July to overturn Roe v. Wade in line with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case. The Supreme Court has accepted to review the constitutionality of the said case filed against the state of Mississippi, which in turn is expected to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In a statement dated July 29, Noem announced that she has joined the amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court on the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization abortion case. Noem pointed out that she would like to change the connotation that pregnancy hinders the path of a "successful career" and expressed her defiance of Roe v. Wade.
The brief was filed together with 240 pro-life feminist organizations, women scholars, and professionals to contest Roe v. Wade. The amicus brief "rejects the notion set out in" the Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey that abortion is a constitutional right given to women for it empowers them to "achieve economic and social equality."
"For my entire life, women have been told that pregnancy is a barrier to a successful career. This lie has led to millions of abortions, despite women like me and countless others proving that successful careers and motherhood are not mutually exclusive," Noem said in the statement.
"I was born a little over a year before the U.S. Supreme Court decided that abortion is necessary for women to succeed. I was eight months pregnant when I first took over our family ranch following my father's tragic death," she disclosed. "Today, as a former state legislator, congresswoman, and South Dakota's first female governor, I stand in defiance of the lies perpetrated by the Roe decision."
"The friend-of-the-court brief rejects the notion, set out in the Roe and Casey decisions, that the ability of women to achieve economic and social equality depends on abortion. For that reason and others, the High Court should overturn Roe and Casey," she stressed.
Prior to that, Noem signed into law last February the House Bill 105 that requires doctors to attend to the needs of children born alive after abortion. The said bill supports the state's 2019 law, "Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act" that prohibits a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion."
