South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem on Sunday lauded proposed abortion legislation that is based around the time of a fetal heartbeat.
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Noem claimed 71% of American believe there should be “reasonable restrictions” on abortion.
“Science has proven to us that life begins at conception and the bill that I'm bringing this year to our legislatures says that once a heartbeat is detected, that then abortions should not be an option for people, that we need to protect those babies,” she said.
According to Noem, the state has proven “this issue doesn't have to be divisive.”
“Last year I brought a bill that protected babies upon the diagnosis of Down's syndrome and it unanimously passed my legislature,” she said. “Republicans and Democrats together believe that when parents get that diagnosis of Down’s syndrome, that baby shouldn't be aborted just because of that diagnosis.”
Noem pushed back at critics of bills that had been brought before the legislature that would have mandated COVID-19 lockdowns, saying the state relies on “personal responsibility.”
“Those were bills that were bought in the legislature, never put into action and never utilized,” she said. “The National Guard was used to support our COVID response and everything was voluntary and an option that people could utilize if they wanted to.”
“We have realized that, people in this day and age, they hear their leaders talk about division and trying to create anger and fear when really what we should be doing is talking about … personal responsibility, letting people make the best decisions for their families, have flexibility and get through this together,” she added. “We did that here in South Dakota and I think they're people outside this state that certainly want to criticize.”
Noem said South Dakota has focused on COVID hospitalizations rather than cases.
“We know that we can't stop this virus, so we can slow it down, that we need to focus on hospital capacity, taking care of people should they get very, very sick, and so we've been partnering with our hospital systems to continue to do that,” she said.
“Nothing has changed in South Dakota, this is our priority, we are working together to take care of those individuals, but there are cases, we know the people have been vaccinated and some people haven't. Regardless, we are going to give them as many options as possible to get through this and to be healthy again.”
Noem also defended her support of a proposed bill to prevent transgender women and girls from participating on sports teams for females.
“This is about fairness, this about making sure that her girls have a chance to be successful and to compete, to win scholarships, potentially go on to play professional sports beyond that,” she said.
“So now I'm bringing a bill to the legislature that will be the strongest bill in the nation in protecting fairness in girls sports and I'm hopeful that my legislatures will support it,” she said.
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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