Gov. Noem's abortion ban stifled by Republican lawmakers

A Republican-controlled South Dakota House committee declined Wednesday to consider a proposal from Gov. Kristi Noem aimed at banning nearly all abortions, stifling a top item on the governor's agenda.

The Republican governor loudly trumpeted her proposal this year, which would have mimicked the private enforcement of a Texas law and prohibited abortions once medical professionals can detect fetal cardiac activity.

But it quickly met resistance when lawmakers on the House State Affairs committee declined to give it a hearing — a move rarely seen in the Legislature that signaled defiance of the governor.

“They showed up late to the game last minute, even last hour type stuff and it didn't pass,” said House Speaker Spencer Gosch, a Republican. “Simple as that.”

Gosch and other lawmakers on the committee refused to discuss their reasons for rejecting the proposal. However, Gosch earlier Wednesday told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader that while he shared Noem's goal of outlawing all abortions, he worried that her proposal would have jeopardized the state's involvement in a separate legal battle with Planned Parenthood which operates the state's only clinic that regularly provides abortions.

Noem has touted support for the proposal from several national groups opposed to abortion access, but in-state groups have remained silent on the bill.

“I think it's better if there's agreement in the pro-life community, and it's clear we don't all agree,” Republican Sen. Lee Schoenbeck said of the bill Wednesday.

Noem unveiled the proposal last month. It would all but outlaw abortions in the state by prohibiting abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around the sixth week and is before some women even know they’re pregnant. It would also leave enforcement up to private citizens through lawsuits instead of through prosecutors and criminal charges.

The House committee's move gave the governor's office just hours to find a legislator willing to carry the bill, though it could also be brought before lawmakers later in the session through other maneuvers.

Noem told reporters she was caught off-guard by the committee's decision not to hear the bill.

“They’re not listening to national leaders in the pro-life movement on the momentum we have in front of the Supreme Court and what this legislation means to South Dakota,” she said, adding that she didn't believe her proposal “takes any credibility away from the case in front of the Supreme Court.”

The majority-conservative Supreme Court last month refused to speed up the ongoing court case over Texas' ban on most abortions, declining to order a federal appeals court to return the case to a federal judge who had temporarily blocked the law’s enforcement.

However, if South Dakota were to pass a similar ban, the law would be considered by a separate federal circuit court and give another opportunity for federal judges to weigh in on the law.

Kristin Hayward, the advocacy manager of Planned Parenthood South Dakota Action Fund, said in a statement that the governor's setback doesn't change the fact that she is trying to wipe out abortion access in the state.

“Don’t be fooled by the political games because the fact remains that Governor Noem is pushing a Texas-style abortion ban and fully supports decimating reproductive rights in our state," Hayward said.