South Dakota makes it harder for women to get abortion meds

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota lawmakers on Thursday approved Gov. Kristi Noem’s new rule for medical abortions that make the state one of the hardest places in the U.S. to get abortion pills.

The rule requires women to return to a doctor to receive the second of two drugs used to carry out a medication abortion. Usually women receive both drugs in one visit, taking the second medication at home.

Doctors and abortion rights advocates decried the rule as a dangerous intrusion on the relationship between doctors and patients.

The Republican governor initiated the rules change in September through an executive order, ahead of the Food and Drug Administration’s decision last month to permanently remove a requirement that women seeking abortion pills pick them up in person. The new rules, spurred by the governor’s order, had stalled in a legislative committee last month after Republican Sen. Timothy Johns, said he did not see any evidence that the requirement was really necessary for the abortion-seeker’s safety, as Noem argued.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-health-kristi-noem-south-dakota-sioux-falls-c43000384feee3969c4c36ef2e5bc7c8