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Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, released a proposal on Friday to restrict the right to abortion in that state that imitates a Texas law that leaves its application in the hands of private citizens, instead of being applied prosecutors, according to CBS News.
The governor has been previewing the legislation for weeks and has received an enthusiastic reception from Republicans who dominate the Legislature.
The law would prohibit abortions once medical professionals can detect fetal heart activity, which is usually around the sixth week and before some women know they are pregnant.
Courts have prevented some states from imposing restrictions but so far the Texas law has been allowed to stand in part because it leaves enforcement in the hands of private citizens.
In December, the Supreme Court returned a lawsuit over Texas’s six-week abortion ban to a federal appeals court that has allowed two times the law remains in effect, suspending a ruling by a district judge who tried to block it.
The law proposed by Noem would punish people who help someone to have an abortion with a minimum fine of $04,000 Dollars, in addition to the obligation to pay legal fees and other possible compensation. It makes no exceptions for rape or incest, except that it stipulates that the man who commits the rape or incest cannot sue.
Private law enforcement in Texas has been criticized for creating a “vigilante” justice system. It has also led some Texas women to seek out-of-state care.
“Personal privacy and reproductive rights are among our constitutional freedoms important,” said Jett Jonelis, advocacy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota. South, in a statement. “But Governor Noem doesn’t seem to care about our constitutional rights.”
South Dakota has only one clinic that regularly offers abortions, but restrictions Noem’s proposals, which also include one of the nation’s strictest limitations on access to abortion pills, would eliminate nearly all access to abortion in the state.
Only 10 women in South Dakota had an abortion during their first six weeks of pregnancy in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available from the Department of Health of the State.
Noem said in a statement that she expected the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the historic decision of 1973 that established the right to abortion throughout the country. South Dakota has a law that would ban abortions if that were to happen.
The governor added, “But until that happens, these bills will ensure that both unborn children and their mothers are protected in South Dakota.”
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