South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem issues executive order restricting access to abortion medication

• Gov. Kristi Noem issued an order to restrict access to abortion medication in South Dakota.
• The order requires patients to get an in-person examination before they can be prescribed an abortion pill.
• Noem is among a slew of Republican officials who are working to advance anti-abortion rules in their states.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Tuesday evening issued an executive order that restricts access to abortion medication and telemedicine abortions in the state.

Under the order, patients must get an in-person examination before a state-licensed physician can dispense or prescribe them abortion medicine, commonly referred to as an abortion pill. The rule also blocks abortion pills from being delivered via mail or other delivery services, and from being provided in schools and on state property.

Telemedicine abortions involve doctors and health providers authorizing the use of abortion medication via video-conferencing. South Dakota law already prohibits them. But in April, the Food and Drug Administration, which approved abortion through medication over 20 years ago, announced it would lift requirements on in-person examinations and allow abortion pills to be distributed by mail due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In her order, Noem said that the FDA is expected to lift further restrictions on abortion medication beginning November 1 and argued that the move would create "unsafe conditions" and cause "potential harm to women."

Around 39% of abortions in South Dakota in 2020 were done via medication, according to the state Department of Health. A total of 125 abortions were performed in the state last year.

Noem joins a slew of Republican officials who are working to advance anti-abortion rules and laws in their states. The renewed GOP push to limit access to abortion comes in light of a recently enacted Texas law that prohibits abortions after the six-week mark of pregnancy, a time when many women do not yet know that they are pregnant. The law has threatened access to abortion across the state, and GOP lawmakers in Florida and Arkansas are already in the process of drafting their own versions of the Texas bill.

"The 'Texas Effect' we are seeing now is part of a sinister strategy to decimate fundamental rights and freedoms by enacting cruel copycat legislation across states," NARAL Pro-Choice America, an abortion-rights group, said in a statement last week. "Like dominos falling one after another, extremist lawmakers are lining up to follow Texas' lead and block access to abortion care at all costs."

The Supreme Court last week denied a request from abortion providers in Texas to block the law from going into effect on September 1. The decision came as the high court is expected to consider the constitutionality of abortion in a major case out of Mississippi this upcoming fall term, which could upend Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.