South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem fulfilled what she said last week that they will be following in the footsteps of Texas in the protection of the unborn when she banned telemedicine abortions on Tuesday by signing Executive Order 2021-12.
Noem announced the signing of the order on Twitter on Wednesday, which she said was her means to put a "block" on the "war on the unborn" waged by the Biden Administration through the urging of Planned Parenthood and the likes of it.
"Emboldened by radical groups like @PPFA, the Biden Administration is waging a war on the unborn. Today I signed an Executive Order directing that emergency rules be adopted and implemented to block telemedicine abortions. Every life is precious," Noem said.
Noem earlier praised the Texas Heartbeat Act that was implemented on September 1 and announced that she has already ordered the review of the said law along with South Dakota laws so that it will become "the strongest pro life law on the books" of the state.
In the same vein, Executive Order 2021-12 seeks to protect the unborn by establishing rules that restrict chemical abortions aside from telemedicine abortions that, Noem said in a statement, are but part of the Biden Administration's means to "suppress" pro-life laws.
"The Biden Administration is continuing to overstep its authority and suppress legislatures that are standing up for the unborn to pass strong pro-life laws. They are working right now to make it easier to end the life of an unborn child via telemedicine abortion," Noem pointed out.
"That is not going to happen in South Dakota. I will continue working with the legislature and my Unborn Child Advocate to ensure that South Dakota remains a strong pro-life state," she added.
According to the statement, the executive order restricts telemedicine abortion in two ways: in its availability to the patient and in its manner of circulation in the state.
The order makes sure telemedicine abortion and chemical abortions are prescribed by a medical professional after conducting an in-person exam and that the prescribed drugs are personally acquired by a person. It also demands the medical professional on the proper administration of Informed Consent laws. Finally, it prevents such drugs to be made available in schools and state grounds.
Meanwhile, it also directs the Department of Health to "develop licensing requirements for 'pill only' abortion clinics," "collect empirical data" on its use along with the frequency of reports on complications experienced from its use, and "enhance reporting requirements on emergency room complications related to chemical abortion."
The Executive Order particularly contradicted the United States Food & Drug Administration's directive last April that allowed abortion pills to be sent by mail after being prescribed via teleconsulting in line with the pandemic.
"Permitting the dispensing of mifepristone through the mail or through a mail-order pharmacy is very likely a preview of how the FDA is expected to change the REMS on November 1, 2021," the executive order raised.
"The South Dakota Department of Health must act quickly to adopt rules to protect women of South Dakota because we can no longer rely on the US Food & Drug Administration for sound, impartial medical protocols, and include commonsense measures that will assure that the state has effective, medically-indicayed protocols in place for the medical community to follow when dispensing the dangerous abortion pills," it continued.
Noem said that the order would be in place "until such a time that the duly elected members of the State Legislature pass legislation to revise" the state's "statutes regarding dangerous abortion-inducing drugs and telemedicine."
The Christian Post reported that Planned Parenthood's Kristin Hayward of its Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota branch found the executive order an attack to abortion and condemned Noem for "following a vocal minority."
"Planned Parenthood will always stand up for patients and communities. We know most South Dakotans support the right to safe, legal abortion, but Noem is following a vocal minority that is attacking abortion, contraception, and comprehensive sexual education in this country," Hayward commented.
Meanwhile, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser along with Americans United for Life President Catherine Glenn Foster commended Noem for the executive order, citing her "bold action that will save lives," particularly South Dakota women's from mailed-in "dangerous chemical abortion drugs."
