The state of South Dakota is set to hold a public hearing on banning abortion pills next month in line with proposals urged by the Governor last September.
Kelo Land reported that the South Dakota Department of Health will be holding a public hearing on December 8 in line with a set of medical-abortion proposals. The hearing comes after various pro-choice organizations in the state have pushed for changes on, as well as, opposed the Department of Health's abortion pills rule.
The said pro-choice organizations include American Civil Liberties Union-South Dakota, Planned Parenthood North Central States, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Sanford Health.
Governor Kristi Noem released Executive Order 2021-12 to ban telemedicine abortions in the state. Noem pointed out the dangers of the abortion pills to women that would only be heightened by the United States Food and Drug Administration's policy on telemedicine abortions implemented due to the pandemic.
In the notice on the public hearing, the South Dakota Department of Health stated that it aims "to consider the adoption and amendment of proposed rule numbered 44:67:04:13." The department explained that the new ruling will "require that no medical abortions by use of mifepristone and misoprostol may be conducted except in a licensed abortion facility."
The department added that such a procedure would requIre "an observation period, and that the pregnant woman must be informed that if she changes her mind about the abortion and decides to carry the baby to term, the effects of the medications may be reversable." The proposed changes to the ruling would also require the abortion facility "to collect and maintain certain information" from the pregnant woman in line with the procedure.
According to the department, the changes in the ruling aims to safeguard women's health in anticipation of the new protocols that will be set by the Food and Drug Administration in the use of the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. The new FDA protocol is said to require the drugs be "prescribed and dispensed by a licensed physician and administered in person in a licensed abortion facility" and "require reporting of certain information."
While National Right To Life (NRTL) said the proposed changes to the Department of Health ruling on the administration of the abortion pills was in response to Noem's Executive Order 2021-12 and the state's legislature establishing permanent protocols on it in 2022. The National Right To Life highlighted that state's legislature spearheaded by the Rules Review Committee will hear Noem's request to fully ban abortion pills in the state.
The South Dakota Legislature's Rules Review Committee heard last November 15 the first set of proposed changes that the Department of Health intends to implement. Accordingly, Noem is anticipating "to work with the South Dakota legislature to pass legislation" in line with her Executive Order "that makes these and other protocols permanent in the 2022 legislative session."
NRTL Director Randall O'Bannon pointed out, in the fourth series of the organization's "Special Report" on telemedicine abortions, that claims of abortion pills being safe are based on"dubious studies" used to push personal agendas.
"Safety, efficacy claims for telemedical, mail-order mifepristone abortions are based on dubious studies," O'Bannon said.
"Efforts to get the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to drop its special Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) regulations are only the latest salvo in a long campaign to get government authorization forDo-It-Yourself (DIY) chemical abortions. Abortion pill advocates have been angling for 'at home' self-managed abortions for years," he revealed.
