South Dakota leaders threaten to prosecute pharmacists over abortion pills
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, along with the state’s Republican attorney general, said Tuesday that the state will prosecute pharmacists who dispense abortion-inducing pills following a recent Food and Drug Administration rule change that broadens access to the pills.
The Republican governor and South Dakota Atty. Gen. Marty Jackley released a letter to South Dakota pharmacists saying they are “subject to felony prosecution” if they procure or dispense abortion-inducing drugs. The state bans all abortions except to save the life of the pregnant person. The U.S. Supreme Court last year stripped away women’s constitutional protections for abortion when it overturned the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling.
“South Dakota will continue to enforce all laws including those that respect and protect the lives of the unborn,” Noem and Jackley said in the letter.
The FDA earlier this month formally updated labeling for abortion pills to allow many more retail pharmacies to dispense them, so long as they complete a certification process.
One Arizona abortion clinic — run by a crew of defiant women — has become a haven in the post-Roe vs. Wade United States.
The change could expand access at online pharmacies. People can get a prescription via telehealth consultation with a health professional and then receive the pills through the mail, where permitted by law.
Still, in states like South Dakota, the rule change’s impact has been blunted by laws limiting abortion broadly and the pills specifically. Legal experts foresee years of court battles over access to the pills as abortion-rights proponents bring test cases to challenge state restrictions.
In a historic reversal, the Supreme Court strikes down a half-century of nationwide abortion rights in the U.S.
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