Abortion pill access tightened

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — South Dakota lawmakers 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.

Currently, women seeking a medical abortion in South Dakota must visit a provider, wait 72 hours, then return to take the first drug, mifepristone. At that time, they also receive a hormone blocker called misoprostol, which is usually taken in subsequent days to end the pregnancy.

Under the new rule, women will have to wait at least a day after receiving the first drug, then return to the receive the second one.

The change comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case that could severely erode abortion rights that have stood for half a century.

Noem’s administration argued the extra visit is necessary to make sure women don’t have complications from the drug.

But doctors warned that making it harder for women to get the second drug is dangerous. Forgoing the second drug creates a greater risk of hemorrhage, according to the South Dakota Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.