South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem on Sunday defended the state's ban of an FDA approved abortion pill — a method not specifically addressed by the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In a contentious interview on CBS News' "Face The Nation," Noem insisted the state has every right to decide "how to handle the situation."
"It's something that should be under the supervision of a medical doctor and it is something in South Dakota that we've made sure happens that way at the state level," she said.
Noem argued though "certain protections" are guarded under the Constitution, "the rest of these items are left to the states, the 10th Amendment guarantees us that."
"What the Supreme Court said was that the Constitution does not give a woman the right to have an abortion," she asserted. "That means that in each state they will make the decision how they handle these situations … in South Dakota we've already had a bill passed ... 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."
Pressed that the pill has approval of the Food and Drug Administration, Noem said the delivery should be under the supervision of a doctor.
"I brought a bill that would ban telemedicine abortions, which means a doctor of the internet or over the phone could prescribe an abortion for an individual because these are very dangerous medical procedures," she contended. "A woman is five times more likely to end up in an emergency room if they're utilizing this kind of method for an abortion. So, it's something that should be under the supervision of a medical doctor and it is something in South Dakota that we've made sure happens that way at the state level.
She also insisted it's a state's right to decide which drugs are going to be available to its residents.
"Many of those decisions are made at the state level, they absolutely are," she said. "That's what states do … there are certain protections that are guarded under the Constitution of the United States."
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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