Attorney General Fights Back After Biden Judge Halts Pro-Life Law

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.