Gov. Noem Issues Statement on Heartbeat Bill

Gov. Noem Issues Statement on Heartbeat Bill

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, South Dakota legislators took unprecedented action to deny introduction of Governor Noem’s legislation to protect all unborn life once a heartbeat can be detected. Governor Noem issued the following statement:

“Every single life is precious and deserving of our protection – but apparently South Dakota legislators think otherwise. It grieves me that they would take this unprecedented action at this time based on the advice of one out-of-state lawyer. National pro-life leaders believe that now is the time to have this sort of protection in law to save lives.

“The United States Supreme Court has allowed the Texas Heartbeat Act to go forward three times, and this legislation has essentially ended abortions in Texas. My focus is on ensuring that we are protecting as many South Dakota lives as possible.

“The South Dakota state legislature has always guaranteed that every bill gets a hearing, and that is something that I’ve always loved about our process. We have rules and an open process, and we play by those rules. To our knowledge, this is the first time in decades that a bill has been denied a hearing.

“South Dakota deserved to have a hearing on a bill to protect the heartbeats of unborn children. We can hear heartbeats at six weeks, but I’m disappointed this bill was not granted even one hearing.”

You can read the proposed heartbeat legislation here.

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10 thoughts on “Gov. Noem Issues Statement on Heartbeat Bill”

  1. Totally not unprecedented. The legislature has no obligation to introduce a bill on behalf of the governor. Once it’s introduced then it has to be heard publicly. We used to have pocket vetoes where the chairman would not calendar a bill for hearing essentially killing it but those rules changed.

  2. The pro life community told the Governor NOT to introduce this bill…but she did it anyway!

    1. What was the reason to not introduce it and who do you consider the ‘pro life community’? All communities come down to a person(s). Thanks for the insight!

  3. Nothing but a self serving bill to build up her image.
    Legislators saw thru it along with other failed
    requests.
    I’m donating to Haugard

  4. The Governor apparently doesn’t understand that there is no bill to be heard. All she had was a draft, as far as the Legislature is concerned. House State Affairs was totally within their right to deny her the courtesy of introduction.

    1. Yes only legislators can intorduce legislation. There was never a bill, the real question is why did the Govornor not to convince leadership to intoduce the bill, not why did it not get a hearing.

      1. There’s a long line of legislators lined up to kiss the ring so it must have been a REALLY BAD draft.

  5. I agree with the governor. I’m very disappointed in the Republicans that wouldn’t even hear it.

    1. Again, there was nothing to “hear.” This was only a bill draft. If she and her legislative management team would have done their due diligence, they’d have prepped the committee on what was being requested to be introduced and then the committee could have introduced it on her behalf and then it could have gotten a hearing.

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