Noem signs bills including abortion video mandate, petition signature withdrawal process
Mar 19, 2024 | 2:00 pm ET
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The state Capitol in Pierre. (Getty Images)
Gov. Kristi Noem signed dozens of bills into law during the past several days, including two related to abortion.
One bill requires the production of a video and other materials explaining the state’s abortion ban. Another one allows people to withdraw their signatures from ballot-question petitions, such as one currently circulating that would reinstate abortion rights.
South Dakota’s abortion ban was written in 2005 and triggered by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion in 2022. The ban includes one exception for abortions necessary to preserve the life of the mother.
The meaning of the exception is a topic of debate. During the recently concluded state legislative session, for example, an OB-GYN testified that an induced labor resulting in complications and the death of a baby could be deemed an abortion under the state’s current law.
An attempt to amend the language of the law failed last year. This year’s bill says the state Department of Health must produce a video and materials describing:
- The state’s abortion law and acts that do and do not constitute an abortion.
- The most common medical conditions that threaten the life or health of a pregnant woman.
- The generally accepted standards of care applicable to the treatment of a pregnant woman experiencing life-threatening or health-threatening medical conditions.
- The criteria that a practitioner, exercising reasonable medical judgment, might use in determining the best course of treatment for a pregnant woman experiencing life-threatening or health-threatening medical conditions and for her unborn child.
The bill also requires the department to consult on the video and materials with the state attorney general and “stakeholders having medical and legal expertise.”
The other abortion-related bill, which would allow people to withdraw their signatures from ballot-question petitions, was supported by anti-abortion legislators. They want to block a potential citizen-initiated ballot measure to restore abortion rights.
Backers of that initiative have said they have enough signatures from registered voters to place the measure on the Nov. 5 ballot, but they have not yet turned in the signatures.
The 2024 legislative session concluded earlier this month, except for one day next Monday to consider vetoes. Noem has not issued any vetoes yet.
More bills signed into law
Following are summaries of some other bills recently signed by Noem.
- SB 80 provides $2 million to the state Department of Human Services for technology grants to elderly care providers.
- SB 170 provides $5.75 million to the Department of Corrections to expand the health care services areas at the women’s prison in Pierre.
- SB 209 provides $5 million to the state Department of Health for telemedicine grants to assisted living centers and nursing homes.
- HB 1093 provides $6 million to the state Department of Social Services to help LifeScape in Sioux Falls construct a facility with a specialty rehabilitation pediatric hospital, a specialty school for children under 21, an intermediate health care facility for children under 21, and outpatient rehabilitation pediatric services.
- HB 1098 waives the fee for homeless people to obtain a copy of their birth certificate.
- HB 1131 waives fees for homeless people to obtain nondriver identification cards.
- SB 43 establishes procedures for the imposition of fines and probation against medical cannabis establishments, increases the allowable fee for a medical cannabis establishment registration certificate, and directs the Department of Health to promulgate rules to increase the fee for a registration certificate.
- SB 89 adjusts the required waiting period on a notice to vacate from 30 to 15 days for “at will” tenants.
- SB 90 removes the requirement that landlords issue a non-binding three-day “notice to quit” on tenants before starting an eviction proceeding in court.
- SB 191 requires parolees and probationers to get additional sign-offs from a health care practitioner to get a medical cannabis card.
- SB 208 requires the Governor’s Office of Economic Development to biannually report to the Legislature the name and amount of grants from the Future Fund (which is under the control of the governor and funded by a tax on employers), plus the location of the recipients, the research or economic development purpose being funded, the measures used to determine the economic impact, and the number of jobs created or retained.
- HB 1039 makes the state responsible for the legal defense fees of inmates who commit crimes behind prison walls, rather than the county where the prison is located.
- HB 1118 requires the state treasurer to seek permission from the Legislature to increase the office’s budget for finding unclaimed property owners.
- SB 6 puts drug dealers who knowingly sell fentanyl to someone who later dies of an overdose in line for longer sentences.
- SB 47 increases the amount paid to counties for diversion programs that keep juvenile offenders out of the justice system.
- SB 49 provides $10 million from remaining American Rescue Plan Act funding for water and sewer infrastructure at the proposed site of a future men’s prison in rural Lincoln County, and also moves about $226 million into a construction fund to prepare for the project.
- SB 71 removes a prohibition on the ability of law enforcement and various governmental entities to inspect, search, seize, prosecute, or impose disciplinary action on cannabis dispensaries, cultivation facilities, manufacturing facilities, and testing facilities.
- SB 168 provides $5 million to the Office of the Attorney General for grants to organizations that assist children who have been abused or neglected, victims of domestic violence and victims of sexual assault.
- SB 203 allows holders of enhanced concealed carry permits to carry a concealed pistol at a school with the permission of the principal or “other person who has general control and supervision of the building or grounds.”
- HB 1061 appropriates $4.28 million to the Emergency and Disaster Fund, to cover not only emergency and disaster responses within the state but also Gov. Kristi Noem’s latest deployment of National Guard troops to assist Texas at the nation’s southern border.
- HB 1092 raises the 911 surcharge on phone lines from $1.25 to $2.
- HB 1125 bans the widely available, hemp-derived “diet weed” products that induce highs similar to marijuana.
- HB 1195 provides authority for a court to order offenders convicted of vehicular homicide to pay restitution to a victim’s children until age 18.
Pierre, SD
