S. Dakota Senate Pushing New Regressive Anti-Choice Law
Women who want an abortion must undergo counseling from certified anti-choice zealots.
South Dakota’s year-old abortion law remains tied up in a court challenge, but a state Senate committee endorsed a bill Wednesday that would change some of its counseling requirements for women seeking an abortion.
The bill leaves intact the current law’s requirements that women seeking abortions wait 72 hours and undergo counseling at pregnancy help centers that discourage abortions. But it changes provisions dealing with a woman’s first consultation with a doctor at an abortion clinic and requires that counselors at the pregnancy help centers be licensed.
The Senate Health Committee voted 6-1 to approve the bill, which has already passed in the House. The measure next goes to the full Senate.
The bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Roger Hunt, R-Brandon, said he does not know whether the measure will help the state defend the law against a court challenge. Planned Parenthood, which operates South Dakota’s only abortion clinic in Sioux Falls, argues the 2011 law is an unconstitutional burden on a woman’s right to an abortion. A federal judge has suspended most of the law from taking effect until the court challenge is decided.
“You never know really what’s going to happen in litigation,” Hunt told the Senate Committee.
However, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has said the bill might have an effect on the federal court lawsuit.
“It has the potential to assist in some of the concerns expressed by the federal court in the 2011 litigation,” Jackley said recently.