PIERRE, South Dakota (LifeSiteNews) — A legislative leader for Democrats in South Dakota said she will not be pushing for any “pro-abortion” laws this session.
“I just don’t think there is an appetite for any pro-abortion or [so-called] pro-women’s rights bills, unfortunately,” House Minority Leader Erin Healy said recently, according to the South Dakota Searchlight. “I think that’s really unfortunate, because we do know that the language needs to be cleaned up, but the reality is that kind of bill would not pass in this body.”
Healy wanted to weaken protections for innocent preborn babies. The state currently forbids abortions except to “preserve the life” of the mother. However, abortion – the destruction of an unborn child – is never medically necessary to preserve a woman’s life or health, as experts have affirmed.
Democrats have little political power in the state house: Republicans outnumber them about 9 to 1 across both chambers.
Several pro-abortion activists are working on a ballot measure for 2026 to make it easier to kill babies in the state.
Supporters of legalized abortion lost last November. Activists attempted to weaken the state’s law to allow for abortion throughout the first trimester. This would essentially allow for most abortions, as around 96 percent of abortions occur in the first trimester, according to available data.
Then-Governor Kristi Noem celebrated the vote. “South Dakotans voted for LIFE tonight,” she wrote on X. “Our state has the highest birth rate in the nation because our people have HOPE. And we will continue to take care of moms and their babies both before birth and after.”
Healy falsely claimed women would ‘die’ because of pro-life law
Healy previously claimed that women would die following the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, after which the state’s “trigger law” went into effect, banning almost all abortions.
She traveled to the White House in 2022 to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris about abortion.
“We are also going to see a lot of South Dakota women die because of this,” Healy claimed in an interview.
However, there is no evidence that women have died because of protections for preborn babies. Vice President Harris and the media did push a false narrative on the campaign trail that women died because of abortion restrictions in Georgia, but that claim has been thoroughly debunked.
New research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also undermines claims of abortion activists. According to new data, the maternal mortality rate fell 17 percent in 2023, as LifeSiteNews recently reported.
Social scientist Michael New recently told LifeSiteNews that pro-life laws and lower maternal mortality go hand-in-hand.
“Most people misunderstand that pro-life laws are consistent with good public health. Poland consistently has among the lowest maternal mortality rates in Europe,” New, an expert on pro-life studies and a business professor at the Catholic University of America, explained during a recent interview.
“Ireland prior to 2018 had lower maternal mortality rates than England, Scotland, and Wales,” New said. “Chile saw maternal mortality rates continue to fall after they started enforcing strong pro-life laws in 1989.”
Healy, the South Dakota Democrat, previously drew attention for calling it “dangerous” and “unAmerican” to champion children being raised in a home with a mom and a dad, as opposed to two men, two women, or a single parent.