South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said Tuesday that she will push legislation that will implement a six week abortion ban in the state, the Associated Press reported.
In Noem’s State of the State address Tuesday, she outlined several priorities to kickstart the state’s legislative term, including parameters surrounding the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic and the restrictions on abortion.
“During the final State of the State address of her first term, the Republican governor proposed what amounted to a wishlist for conservative voters, promising to make it easier for state residents to get a permit to carry concealed firearms and nearly impossible for them to get an abortion. She is also proposing a requirement that schools allot time for prayer, a ban on the teaching of controversial material on race in public schools and ensured exemptions from COVID-19 vaccines for medical or religious reasons.
'In South Dakota, we protect freedom, and we will pass it on to our children, and we will not allow freedom to go extinct,' the governor said, as she derided other states for enacting restrictions to prevent and slow COVID-19 infections.
The AP noted a current Supreme Court case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, could overturn landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade. The case has prompted several state legislatures, like Ohio and South Dakota, to draft pro-life legislation to curtail abortion.
“Today, I am asking all of you to protect the heartbeats of these unborn children,” Noem told the lawmakers during her address Tuesday. “I am bringing legislation to ban all abortions once a heartbeat can be detected.”
Noem, who is pro-life, previously signed an Executive Order prohibiting telemedicine abortions in South Dakota. In an interview with Fox News, Noem said that her office had been in contact with lawmakers in Texas who created the legislation banning abortions after fetal heartbeat detection in The Lone Star State.
“We’ve already connected with those in Texas who brought forward this bill and are working and looking at how we could facilitate this legislation in South Dakota,” Noem told Rachel Campos-Duffy. “It was immediately something we were looking at doing here in our state.”