This bill clarifies South Dakota's definition of abortion to specify that it means intentionally ending a pregnancy, while explicitly excluding accidental deaths during medical treatment, miscarriage care, ectopic pregnancy treatment, and procedures to save the unborn child's life or health. The change ensures that doctors providing standard medical care—like treating complications or infections—cannot be prosecuted under the state's abortion law as long as any fetal death is unintentional.
This amendment completely rewrites HB1257 from a bill regulating abortion reporting to one that comprehensively redefines abortion in South Dakota law, establishing detailed statutory definitions of key terms like "abortion," "unborn child," "pregnant," "ectopic pregnancy," and "miscarriage" while narrowing the life-of-the-mother exception by explicitly excluding abortions based on psychological or emotional conditions and requiring them to occur only in hospitals with physician oversight. This represents a fundamental shift in the bill's purpose—from procedural regulation to substantive legal redefinition of abortion itself, which broadens the scope and restrictiveness of abortion law.
The amendment converted the bill from its engrossed (committee) version to its enrolled (final passed) version, making minor technical corrections such as renumbering definition subsections from (7) and (8) to (8) and (9), removing the word "what" from the definition of "probable gestational age," and changing "the physician" to "physician" for consistency. These are housekeeping edits that do not substantively alter the bill's purpose of amending South Dakota's definition of abortion.
Other amendments
Signed by the Governor H.J. 579
Delivered to the Governor H.J. 534
Signed by the President S.J. 486
Signed by the Speaker H.J. 516
Senate Do Pass Amended Passed, YEAS 31, NAYS 2. S.J. 447
State Affairs Do Pass Passed, YEAS 8, NAYS 1. S.J. 37
State Affairs Scheduled for hearing
First read in Senate and referred to Senate State Affairs S.J. 398
House of Representatives Do Pass Amended Passed, YEAS 60, NAYS 6. H.J. 426
State Affairs Do Pass Amended Passed, YEAS 10, NAYS 2.
State Affairs Motion to amend
State Affairs Scheduled for hearing
House of Representatives Referred to House State Affairs H.J. 294
House of Representatives Prime Sponsor Changed at the Request of the Prime Sponsor H.J. 246
First Reading House H.J. 207
Prime sponsor · Rep.
R
Prime sponsor · Sen.
R
Cosponsors
Do Pass Amended
State Affairs — Do Pass
Do Pass Amended
State Affairs — Do Pass Amended