South Dakota doctors and legal experts slam SD Dept. of Health video on abortion ban for creating more confusion

“Despite any good faith effort by the Department of Health, the recent video it was ordered by the Legislature to produce fails to resolve the horrible confusion and drastic consequences of our current abortion ban,” observed Nancy Turbak Berry, a Watertown attorney and chair of Coalition for Freedom Amendment G. “Supposedly, the video was going to clear up legal questions for doctors about which acts constitute an abortion, but instead it just muddies the waters even more, then dodges all responsibility for offering any firm guidance doctors can rely on.”

“Fundamentally, the problem is that in South Dakota, one of 14 states with the most extreme anti-abortion laws in the nation, the unavoidable disasters created by the Legislature aren’t mitigated by commentary from the Secretary of Health that tries to soften the hard edges of the law, but is not legally binding on anyone,” Turbak Berry explained.

“Supposedly the video was to give doctors clear guidance on what is legal and what is illegal under our law; instead, the video gives largely ambiguous answers to that question,” she said. “Worse yet, what little guidance it does offer is worthless because the video ends with a disclaimer warning doctors not to rely on any advice in the video and saying that statements in the video are not legally binding. That’s outrageous!

“How are doctors supposed to be anything but confused, when the state itself finds our abortion law so confusing that it refuses to be bound by its own explanation of the law?” Turbak Berry asked.  

Dr. Marvin Buehner, a Rapid City OB/GYN recently retired after 30 years in practice agrees.

“It’s a complete farce,” Buehner said. “Every doctor knows that the only way to protect doctors and their patients from an extreme abortion ban is to make the government stop threatening doctors with prison time for offering patients, including pregnant rape or incest victims, a full range of health-care choices. Until the law is changed to restore patients’ personal freedom to make their own health care decisions and doctors’ professional freedom to offer their best medical judgment, no video can solve the mess created by South Dakota’s extreme abortion ban.

“Furthermore,” he continued, “threatening doctors with a felony for providing care that even might be considered an abortion makes OB/GYN practice in the state so risky it discourages those specialists from even practicing here. And that ends up denying health care to many female patients who aren’t even pregnant.”

“We don’t need a video that cannot possibly offer doctors and the women they treat the legal certainty they deserve,” Turbak Berry concluded. “What we need is to go back to the Roe vs. Wade legal framework that struck a common-sense balance between personal freedom on one hand and regulation later in pregnancy on the other, which most South Dakotans support. It’s way past time to be bullied by extremist politicians intent on imposing their personal views on all of South Dakota. Until we return to a more moderate law, the noise and fury on the abortion issue and the very real damage it is doing to women, girls, and families in this state, will continue.”

“We encourage everyone to show their support for this critical amendment. Put up a yard sign, talk to your family and friends,” said Adam Weiland, co-founder of Dakotans for Health. “Amendment G restores the reproductive rights once protected by Roe v. Wade, and it’s crucial to protecting personal freedom and health-care decisions in South Dakota. Get involved and help make a difference.”

For more information, visit www.dakotans4health.com. You can view Dakotans for Health’s Friday, Sept. 6, press conference here.

Dakotans for Health (a poster from its Facebook page is seen above) is a grassroots organization focused on health care and protecting the democratic process. The organization was instrumental in the successful 2022 campaign to expand Medicaid coverage to 52,000 low-income South Dakotans. Dakotans for Health is dedicated to ensuring all South Dakotans have access to the care they need, no matter who they are, what they look like, or how much money they have.