CAPITOL LAKE, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem appeared on Face the Nation Sunday morning, speaking about topics pertaining to the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe V. Wade.
Margaret Brennan of CBS News asked Noem questions about how South Dakota will support pregnant people, how she feels about possible exceptions for rape and incest, and if she will try to further block telemedicine abortion. Currently, South Dakota’s trigger law does not allow exceptions for victims of rape or incest. Face the Nation played a video clip of comments from GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
“I’m a rape victim myself,” Mace said. “And when you realize what’s happened in your life, the trauma, the emotional, the mental, the physical trauma in a woman’s life, that decision, she should make that decision with her doctor and between her and her God.”
Noem said in response that while it is “tragic” that Mace had to go through that, she believes “every life is precious.”
“I just have never believed that having a tragedy or a tragic situation happen to someone is a reason to have another tragedy occur,” Noem said.
When asked to clarify if she feels there should be no exemptions, Noem said that it will be a debate states have.
Following Friday’s news of the Supreme Court’s decision, Noem called for a special session on abortion. When asked what she hopes to accomplish in this session, Noem said she believes it will bring conversations and debate about support for pregnant people.
Noem mentioned she has already launched a website as a resource for people who find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy or “crisis situation.”
“So it’s an incredible resource that does more to support these women that are in a situation that was unplanned and really does leave them in a situation where they’re not prepared for the news that they have that they’re expecting a baby,” Noem said in the interview with Brennan.
In a follow-up question, Brennan pointed out that America has the worst maternal mortality rate of any developed country and asked what support Noem is giving to the pregnant individual.
“Are you giving them paid leave? Are you giving them more health care rights in your state? Are you giving them more state funding,” Brennan asked. “What exactly are you doing to keep them alive during their pregnancy?”
Noem did not have a specific answer to these questions.
“So that’s the debate and discussion that we’re having, but I think what’s incredible and what’s going on is that the people will decide, you know elected officials at the state level is who they’ll be talking to to decide what their state’s laws look like,” Noem said.
Moving to a discussion on telemedicine abortions which allow patients to receive abortion pills in the mail, Brennan pointed out that South Dakota is one of 30 states that will limit access to these pills. She asked Noem how she would prevent people from receiving this federally-approved medication.
In response, Noem said she brought forward a bill that would ban doctors from prescribing these medications over the phone or via the internet, but offered no insight on future plans. Telemedicine abortions are approved by the FDA.
“In South Dakota, we’ve already had a bill passed that set on telemedicine abortions, that we don’t believe it should be available, because it is a dangerous situation for those individuals without being medically supervised by a physician,” Noem said.
To read the full interview conducted by Margaret Brennan, click here.