South Dakota Governor’s Executive Order Bans Telemedicine Abortions
The executive order directs the state’s Department of Health and its physicians to abide by rules that prevent telemedicine abortions that lack initial in-person assessments.
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- South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has signed an executive order that aims to ban telemedicine abortions throughout the state.
The executive order targets the South Dakota Department of Health and its physicians, detailing several rules they must follow in regards to telemedicine abortions.
South Dakota physicians may only prescribe and distribute abortion drugs after they have performed an in-person examination on the patient. The order also blocks abortion drugs from being provided via courier, mail service, delivery, or telemedicine.
Patients accessing telemedicine abortions typically attend a virtual assessment with a provider and then receive abortion-inducing pills through the mail.
Governor Noem’s executive order restricts medication abortions and prohibits physicians from providing abortion-inducing drugs in schools and on state grounds, the news release stated. Licensed physicians must also continue to ensure that they administer informed consent laws at abortion appointments.
The Republican governor has directed the state’s Department of Health to abide by several new rules, as well. The department must develop licensing requirements for abortion clinics that offer “pill only” services.
The executive order directs the Department to measure what percentage of all abortions are medication abortions, and how often patients experience complications that require a medical follow-up. The order calls for enhanced reporting requirements on complications that are treated in an emergency department, as well.
Governor Noem aims to pass legislation that will make the telemedicine protocols permanent in the 2022 legislative session, according to the press release.
The South Dakota executive order comes one week after Texas passed legislation that bans abortions after six weeks, before most people even know that they are pregnant.
Many states are targeting access to safe, in-person abortions and Governor Noem has gone after the telemedicine alternative, as well.
Abortion opponents argue that medication abortions are too dangerous and providers should not use telehealth to provide abortion services, or at the very least, an in-person visit should precede the service. However, studies have shown the high success rates of telemedicine abortions.
A study from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) recently found that 95 percent of telemedicine abortions performed at a California clinic during the pandemic were safe and successful, with only five percent requiring medical care to complete the procedure.
Using telehealth to assist in medication abortions can increase abortion access for those who may not be able to safely attend an in-person procedure. It can also benefit people in rural parts of the country who do not have access to a health clinic, as well as those in states where abortion services are illegal.
A separate UCSF study from 2019, backed by Planned Parenthood, found that telemedicine abortions were as safe as in-person procedures.
A federal judge recently ruled that Indiana’s ban on telemedicine abortions was unconstitutional and that the state had not provided evidence that telemedicine abortions were unsafe.
Governor Noem’s executive order also goes against the Biden Administration’s decision to allow healthcare providers to prescribe abortion-inducing drugs via telehealth without an in-person visit as long as the public health emergency remains in effect.
