Even anti-choice South Dakota legislators were shocked by some of the bills introduced this year. The infamous "kill an abortion doctor" bill which did not legalize murdering abortion providers, but certainly gave that impression, got a lot of notice. But another bill did pass and is scheduled to take effect July 1. House Bill 1217 requires a 72-hour waiting period, the longest in the US, after a personal meeting with the doctor providing the abortion. It also requires a mandatory "counselling session" with an essentially unregulated "Crisis Pregnancy Center."
The waiting period restrictions are meant to increase the hassle factor for a state where Planned Parenthood has to fly in doctors from other states to perform abortions. This bill doubles the number of trips the doctor needs to make to meet personally with each patient. It doesn't prohibit abortion but it does make it much less accessible and much more expensive for the women who must now make at least two trips to the clinic for the procedure, not one. And SD is a rural, geographically large state. Travel time to the ONE clinic where abortions are provided is significant. But the other wrinkle in the bill is the mandatory counselling sessions it requires.
The Crisis Pregnancy Centers are exactly what you think they are -
Under the new law, a center must submit an affidavit attesting to seven items, including that one of its principal missions is to "educate, counsel, and otherwise assist women to help them maintain their relationship with their unborn children," that the facility doesn't perform abortions and that it does not refer pregnant women for abortions.
.
The state would force all women to submit to in-person "counselling" from predominantly faith-based volunteers at anti-choice pregnancy centers. All women seeking an abortion. Women who were raped. Women who are victims of incest. Women with medical or psychological conditions threatened by carrying a pregnancy to term. Women who don't want to explain why they want an abortion. Women seeking a legal medical treatment. All women without exception. HB 1217 makes no requirement that the counselors at the pregnancy help centers have any medical certification or special training. HB 1217 would force women to share personal medical information with volunteers who are under no obligation to honor the privacy regulations all other medical workers operate under. And HB 1217 forbids bringing a family member or friend to provide support during the counseling. This “private” counseling allows unchallenged harassment, propaganda, and coercion.
The woman must give the CPC the name of the doctor from whom she is seeking the abortion. This requirement is ostensibly to permit the CPC to warn the physician that the woman may be subject to coercion. The law states that although the meeting is mandatory, and the abortion provider must certify that the meeting took place (or the abortion provider is penalized), the Crisis Center is not required to make any report to the doctor or even to provide documentation that the meeting took place to the woman seeking an abortion. Patient privacy issues (HIPPA) are not addressed. Costs or fees are not addressed. Timely scheduling of the counselling session is not addressed.
Where did this bill come from? Testimony during the legislative session revealed some emotionally disturbed women who said they had been coerced into having abortions by their family, by boyfriends who didn't want to pay child support and by Planned Parenthood staff. Altough these unfortunate women are arguably the least aware women in the state, the solution to their coercion is to force all women, to meet with someone whose mission is to coerce them to not have an abortion.
And now,
As the deadline draws near for the state's new law on waiting periods for abortions to go into effect, the pregnancy centers that are essential to the implementation of the legislation remain on the sidelines...
According to published reports, not a single pregnancy center has registered with the state in response to the law that requires a woman to consult with one and wait 72 hours before getting an abortion.
South Dakota Attorney Marty Jackley wouldn't say whether abortions would be prohibited if no pregnancy center registers with the state. "We plan on addressing only those issues that arise and become an actual controversy," he said.
So, just weeks before the bill takes effect, the non-existence of approved Crisis Pregnancy Centers is also not addressed. To protect their privacy and their resources, the CPCs including those who argued most urgently for this legislation, appear to be rethinking their zeal to talk women out of abortions. Or more deviously, they have realized that they can stop all abortions in the state by doing nothing. At least for now. And that is good enough for them.