South Dakota Dilation and Evacuation Abortion Ban (HB 1241)

HB 1241 would have prohibited a physician from “knowingly dismember[ing] a living unborn child with the intent of endangering the life or health of the child.”

A violation of this law would have been Class 2 felony. If the violation involved the separation of the skull from the spine, then the penalty would have been a Class B felony.

This law targets a procedure known as dilation and evacuation (D and E), which is frequently used during second-trimester abortions. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, an abortion using suction aspiration can be performed up to 14 weeks’ gestation, but after 14 weeks the D and E procedure must be used to perform an abortion. As such, dilation and evacuation bans, depending upon their language, may ban all surgical abortion past 14 weeks’ gestation. (Source.)

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