An attorney general running for Congress is fighting back after a Biden-appointed federal judge temporarily blocked his state’s law banning advertisements promoting abortion.
South Dakota’s law, which bans selling, dispensing, distributing or advertising articles or things for the purpose of obtaining an unlawful abortion, was enacted in March and took effect in July. Pro-abortion non-profit Mayday Health and a former Democratic state Senator sued Republican South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley and Gov. Larry Rhoden in May, claiming the law “violates the First Amendment,” according to a court complaint.
Federal judge Camela Theeler — an appointee of former President Joe Biden — issued a preliminary injunction on July 17, temporarily blocking the red state’s law as the lawsuit proceeds. The federal district court ruled that the state cannot enforce the law until a permanent injunction trial is heard, Jackley told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.
“Part of my argument to the court has been and will continue to be: this is no different than methamphetamine or fentanyl. The legislature gets to decide these issues, and they’ve made a determination that mifepristone is illegal, as is fentanyl and methamphetamine, and when you mail it into our state, whether you call it solicitation, conspiracy or the direct criminal act, it is unlawful, and the First Amendment does not protect it,” Jackley said.
South Dakota banned all abortions except those “necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant female” in 2022 after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade and left the legality of abortion to the states.
“So the concern is — with the advertising of a drug that’s unlawful under state law — that it has the likelihood of increasing the unlawful abortions and harm to young women, and that was something the legislature felt strongly about. The governor and myself joined in the support of that,” Jackley told the DCNF.
The state attorney general is the GOP nominee for South Dakota’s sole House seat in November. He is the heavy favorite to win the election due to the state’s strong Republican lean.
Mayday provides “information free of charge so that women can, if they choose, terminate pregnancies safely even though they live in places like South Dakota that limit or outlaw abortion,” a Mayday co-founder said, according to the District Court District Of South Dakota Southern Division legal order.
The legal complaint references a Mayday sweatshirt owned by Berry which advertises the abortion pill. Because of the ban on advertising illegal abortion pills, Berry would be deterred from “wearing the sweatshirt, and thereby deterred from engaging in lawsuit First Amendment protected speech,” the complaint claims.
“As South Dakota’s Attorney General, I have vigorously defended our legislature. I’ve worked with our governors. I am making efforts to enforce those statutes, recognizing that we are in federal court on the issue right now. And when I go to Congress, that pro-life voice won’t change,” Jackley told the DCNF.
He noted that he plans to be a strong voice in “ensuring and respecting” South Dakota’s “ability to pass certain laws when they’re for the good of the state and they’re within the bounds of the Constitution.”
“And I don’t feel that the federal government, whether it be the Congress or the courts, should be interfering with the state’s performance of its important duties on behalf of its citizens,” he concluded.
(DCNF)
