ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Here's a question being asked in doctors' offices, courtrooms, and hospitals - how long does a doctor have to wait to, quote, "save the life of the mother" in a state where abortion is banned? How dire do things have to get? Lee Strubinger from South Dakota Public Broadcasting says the state attempted to provide some answers in the form of a video.
LEE STRUBINGER, BYLINE: South Dakota has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. Lawmakers wrote the law nearly 20 years ago, but it didn't go into effect until 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the right to an abortion. It prohibits abortion in nearly all cases, even for pregnancies resulting from rape and incest.
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MELISSA MAGSTADT: Hi, I'm Secretary of Health Melissa Magstadt. This video is required by law to provide you information about recent changes to South Dakota laws.
STRUBINGER: You're listening to part of the video now. It came out on Sunday and seeks to clarify to doctors and health systems when they can use the one abortion ban exception, quote, "preserving the life of the pregnant female." In this six-minute video, Secretary Melissa Magstadt says state law permits reasonable medical judgment, which she says gives physicians flexibility to make decisions as long as they document their thought process.
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MAGSTADT: South Dakota law does not require that a woman be critically ill or actively dying for a needed medical intervention to end the pregnancy.
STRUBINGER: The health department lists over a dozen conditions it says may result in the need for an abortion, though it stresses the list is not exhaustive.
AMY KELLEY: It was somewhat helpful.
STRUBINGER: That's Dr. Amy Kelley, an obstetrician in Sioux Falls. She says knowing what conditions the state considers probable for an abortion procedure is beneficial, but...
KELLEY: It's still a little wishy-washy, honestly. And medicine kind of is, you know? I mean, medicine is not - sometimes it's cookbook, but most of the time it's not. Patients don't follow textbooks.
STRUBINGER: Kelley says the video does not address how to handle fetal anomalies or what, quote, "procuring an abortion" means. Some Republican lawmakers have tried to clarify the law in the past, but those efforts have failed. Instead, they called for the state to create this video. It's the first of its kind in the country. Kelsey Pritchard is the state public affairs director for the group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
KELSEY PRITCHARD: And I think it's important - not just for the healthcare professionals, but for the public, for women, for people all across South Dakota - to know that this care is available.
STRUBINGER: She says abortion rights groups create a false narrative that states with abortion bans are dangerous. She says South Dakota's video provides clarity.
PRITCHARD: And other states should really look to South Dakota in combating the misinformation and how to protect women.
STRUBINGER: A longtime OB-GYN from Rapid City, Dr. Marvin Buehner, says he sees it differently.
MARVIN BUEHNER: It's a complete farce.
STRUBINGER: He's provided women's health care for more than 30 years and says the video does little to reassure providers about how to handle complicated pregnancies under the state's abortion law.
BUEHNER: Our medical decisions are going to be judged by bureaucrats, lawyers and judges, not by our peers.
STRUBINGER: If providers are charged with performing an unlawful abortion, they could face felony charges up to two years in prison and could lose their license. Buehner says his concerns would be remedied if voters approved the November ballot question to enshrine abortion access into the state constitution.
BUEHNER: You know, I think that this language is consistent with what most voters would be comfortable with and also protects women's right to make their own healthcare decisions in the vast majority of cases.
STRUBINGER: It allows the state to restrict abortion access as a pregnancy progresses. Anti-abortion groups call the measure too extreme and are challenging it in court. The measure is one of 10 abortion rights ballot questions across the country this year.
For NPR News, I'm Lee Strubinger in Rapid City. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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