Oct 9, 2026 · 29 min · 12 segments
In this week’s episode, Searchlight Report host Meghan O’Brien interviews Dan Ahlers, the Democrat running against South Dakota Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden in the general election. O’Brien asked…
Dan AhlersGuestMeghan O'BrienHostThis past legislative session, there had been a focus on abortion legislation, including restricting abortion medications from entering the state, um, and defining what an abortion procedure is.
Abortion is already illegal in the state except to preserve for the life of the mother.
Do you see the need for further regulations relating to abortion, and what would that look like?
Yeah, I, I don't know that there's anything that's presented itself that needs more regulation.
I do think we n- need to clean up our codified laws, uh, when it comes to abortion.
Over the years, you know, since the time I was an intern in the legislature, there's been tons and tons of, of bills passed that affect a woman's access to healthcare.
And what, what we're seeing is we're seeing OB doctors that are leaving the state because they're concerned about losing their license or being prosecuted, and those are for basic procedures like D&Cs.
But a D&C is a way to prevent infection and other healthcare complications, uh, for the woman, and I think that that's incredibly important that they have access to that.
It's classified as an abortion, and we have doctors that say that, that our laws make it difficult for them to be able to perform basic procedures.
And if that is, if we need to go in and clean those up, I think we should do that.
Um, for a state that w- wants to be pro-life, we have the highest infant mortality rate in the country, and we have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country.
So we need to do whatever we can to make sure that they have h- health, access to healthcare in both our rural and our urban areas.
This past legislative session, there had been a focus on abortion legislation, including restricting abortion medications from entering the state, um, and defining what an abortion procedure is.
Abortion is already illegal in the state except to preserve for the life of the mother.
Do you see the need for further regulations relating to abortion, and what would that look like?
Yeah, I, I don't know that there's anything that's presented itself that needs more regulation.
I do think we n- need to clean up our codified laws, uh, when it comes to abortion.
Over the years, you know, since the time I was an intern in the legislature, there's been tons and tons of, of bills passed that affect a woman's access to healthcare.
And what, what we're seeing is we're seeing OB doctors that are leaving the state because they're concerned about losing their license or being prosecuted, and those are for basic procedures like D&Cs.
But a D&C is a way to prevent infection and other healthcare complications, uh, for the woman, and I think that that's incredibly important that they have access to that.
It's classified as an abortion, and we have doctors that say that, that our laws make it difficult for them to be able to perform basic procedures.
And if that is, if we need to go in and clean those up, I think we should do that.
Um, for a state that w- wants to be pro-life, we have the highest infant mortality rate in the country, and we have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country.
So we need to do whatever we can to make sure that they have h- health, access to healthcare in both our rural and our urban areas.
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