South Dakota's ACOG Chapter Criticizes State Abortion Ban

The South Dakota chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists on Wednesday in a statement criticized a law (HB 1215) banning abortion in the state except to save a woman's life, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports (Myers, Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 9/28). The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families -- a coalition of opponents of the ban -- successfully blocked the July 1 enactment of the law by gathering enough signatures to put the issue on the November ballot. Earlier this month, the coalition launched its first television advertisement calling on voters to reject the law (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 9/20). ACOG's South Dakota Section, which has 89 members, in the statement said the measure should be rejected "for the sake of women's health in South Dakota and for the protection of medical decision-making within our state," adding that the ban's lack of exceptions for rape and incest survivors, the health of a pregnant woman and fatal fetal abnormalities "deprives our patients of their fundamental right to optimal medical care without government interference." The group also said, "We physicians are placed in the unconscionable position of either treating our patients in a medically appropriate fashion and being prosecuted as criminals under this ban or not treating appropriately and not only facing claims of negligence but, worse, seeing our patients suffer." Some South Dakota ob-gyns disagree with group, the Argus Leader reports. According to Jane Gaetze, a Sioux Falls, S.D.-based ob-gyn, the law enables physicians to provide women who have serious medical issues with other treatment options, even if the alternative treatments might cause a woman to miscarry. "If the first intention is to serve both the mother and the baby, and a pregnancy loss occurs as the result of the medication, that is not an intended side effect," Gaetze said (Myers, Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 9/28).

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