ACLU of South Dakota Urges House Committee to Prioritize Civil Liberties when Considering Health Care Policy

Three bills up for debate in the Health and Human Services Committee tomorrow highlight the importance of ensuring health care policy aligns with civil liberties.

The ACLU of South Dakota supports House Bill 1127 and opposes House Bill 1153 and House Bill 1212.

House Bill 1127 would update birth center regulations.

“House Bill 1127 would improve access to maternal care, particularly in rural areas, while ensuring high-quality, regulated options outside of hospitals,” said Samantha Chapman, ACLU of South Dakota advocacy manager. “Birth centers are critical tools for improving maternal health outcomes, particularly for people with low-incomes, people in rural communities, and Black, Latino and Indigenous communities.”

In 2023, the South Dakota Department of Health closed three family planning programs at clinics in Mobridge, Lemmon and Burke. The closure caused a desert for people needing reproductive health care, leaving some forced to travel up to 100 miles to receive care, disproportionately affecting impoverished communities.

House Bill 1153 would allow medical practitioners, health care institutions and health care payers to refuse to provide services based on moral or religious objections.

“Freedom of religion is one of our most fundamental rights as Americans, but that freedom does not give any of us the right to harm others,” Chapman said. “It doesn’t mean a right to refuse to transport a patient in need because she had an abortion. It doesn’t mean refusing care to a patient because she is transgender. It doesn’t mean overriding patient directives about end-of-life care. or refusing to fill prescriptions for HIV medication or birth control. Medical standards, not religious or moral beliefs, should guide medical and health care services.”

House Bill 1212 would allow criminal prosecution of people who receive abortion care.

“Pregnancy outcomes should not be criminalized,” Chapman said. “As we continue to work toward a world where everyone can get the reproductive health care they need, we won’t back down from defending the rights and dignity of individuals to make decisions about their bodies and their futures.”

South Dakota lawmakers have long said they do not want to punish people from seeking abortion and would rather place the legal repercussions on the health care providers who administer abortions. In fact, in 2023, the South Dakota legislature passed House Bill 1220, legislation that would ensure pregnant people who receive abortion care would not be criminally liable. Even organizations opposed to legal abortion, including South Dakota Right to Life, supported that bill.

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About the ACLU of South Dakota

The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of civil liberties and civil rights. The ACLU of South Dakota is part of a three-state chapter that also includes North Dakota and Wyoming. The team in South Dakota is supported by staff in those states.

The ACLU believes freedoms of press, speech, assembly, and religion, and the rights to due process, equal protection and privacy, are fundamental to a free people. In addition, the ACLU seeks to advance constitutional protections for groups traditionally denied their rights, including people of color, women, and the LGBTQ+ and Two Spirit communities. The ACLU of South Dakota carries out its work through selective litigation, lobbying at the state and local level, and through public education and awareness of what the Bill of Rights means for the people of South Dakota.