The Department of Health is releasing a video to clarify the state’s lone abortion exception—life of the mother.
The video was published on the Department of Health’s YouTube page earlier this week. It features Department of Health Secretary Melissa Magstadt outlining the state’s abortion law and when an abortion is acceptable.
“South Dakota law permits appropriate and reasonable medical judgement, giving physicians flexibility to make decisions as long as physicians document their thought process in making their decision,” Magstadt said in the video.
South Dakota state law bans nearly all abortions—including for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. The lone exception is to preserve the life of the mother. Some providers have called the law confusing. That confusion was one of the drivers for the video.
In the video, Secretary Magstadt says state law does not require a woman be critically ill or actively dying for a “needed medical intervention to end the pregnancy.”
The video comes two years after the state’s abortion trigger law went into effect following the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v Wade in June of 2022. Special sessions to address the state’s abortion law change never materialized and attempts to clarify the law in 2023 failed.
Republican Representative Taylor Rehfeldt brought the 2024 bill requiring the Department of Health produce the video.
"I am impressed with the professionalism displayed in the development and discussion of House Bill 1224," Rehfeldt said in a written statement to SDPB. "The instructional video provides clear and concise guidance for physicians on how to approach situations where a woman's life is in danger and an abortion may be necessary."
Some obstetricians in the state say the video does not address concerns key concerns in state law.
Dr. Amy Kelley, an OB/GYN in Sioux Falls, said the video does not address what it means to "procure an abortion."
"That's something that would have been really nice to have cleared up," Kelley said. "Because that's something that we do all the time and can we refer people out for an abortion or not? That was actually, probably, the biggest thing that I was disappointed about."
Kelley said the video also does not address what to do in cases of a fetal anomaly.
In the video, Magstadt said "intent plays a crucial role" and that providers should use "reasonable medical judgment," which is defined in state law.
The Health Department spent $14,000 to produce the video.
Those accused of performing an unlawful abortion face a class six felony.
Dr. Marvin Buehner is a Rapid City OB/GYN who retired last week after thirty years in obstetrics. He worries the recommendations are not legally binding—which is mentioned as a disclaimer at the end of the video.
“None of this protects any OBs from doing what they need to do in complicated pregnancies when it might come to terminating a pregnancy," Buehner said. "It’s a complete farce.”
Buehner worries the felony charge for providing an abortion discourages obstetricians from practicing in the state.
Drs. Buehner and Kelley have voiced support for Constitutional Amendment G, which would enshrine a trimester abortion rights framework into the state constitution.
Opponents of the amendment call the measure extreme and are challenging it in court.
