A new law requiring women who seek abortions in South Dakota to wait 72 hours, and undergo anti-abortion counseling while waiting, is prodding pro-choice advocates to act to make sure the tight abortion rules don’t spread to other states.
Gov. Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota signed the bill into law March 25, making the toughest abortion law in the nation even tougher.
A Planned Parenthood representative said the group will go to court to block the statute, which is to become effective July 1.
According to Politico, there’s only one doctor in the state who provides abortions and has to be flown to patients to perform the procedure. Women already have to wait for weeks to be advised by a doctor to obtain the abortion. Furthermore, the existing state law requires that women have the option to view their fetus before the procedure and wait 24 hours before making a decision.
As a result, the abortion rate is very low, according to the article. However one out of seven women leave the state for an abortion, Politico found.
“The local Planned Parenthood affiliate estimates that 0.1 percent of abortions nationwide are performed in the state and of the 707 abortions performed in 2007, 94.9 percent of the procedures were performed during the first trimester,” according to Politico.
The lack of opportunity to receive an abortion as soon as possible creates a “hostile environment,” according to Elizabeth Nash, a researcher for an institute in South Dakota.
“This data says to me that women are leaving ,” she said. “Between the combination of restriction and access, the climate has become very hostile.”