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| Photo Credit: AP. |
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has described the case of a pregnant 10-year-old girl who was denied abortion in the state as a tragic situation. The Republican Governor was speaking with CNN host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” about South Dakota’s abortion laws after news broke that the pregnant child had traveled to Indiana to have an abortion.
When Bash
asked Noem if South Dakota will, “going forward, force a 10-year-old in that
very same situation to have a baby,” Noem expressed sympathy for the 10-year-old
and called the story “tragic,” according to Politico.
She said not
much as been said of the rapist who put the child though the trauma she has
endured.
“As much as
we can talk about what we can do for that little girl, I think we also need to
be addressing those sick individuals that do this to our children,” she said,
Politico reported.
Bash
responded saying, “But our bodies are our bodies, and women are the ones who
get pregnant. And, in this case, it wasn’t a woman. It was a girl,” according
to Politico.
Noem said
when pressed further on the matter, “What I would say is, I don’t believe a
tragic situation should be perpetuated by another tragedy. And so there’s more
that we have got to do to make sure that we really are living a life that says
every life is precious, especially innocent lives that have been shattered,
like that 10-year-old girl.”
Politico
reported that Bash also asked if Noem would consider the life of a mother at
risk in this situation.
“And I think
that’s something that — yes, that situation, the doctor, the family, the
individuals closest to that will make the decisions there for that family.”
She noted
“every state will have different laws on the books … It’s the way our
Constitution intended.”
Noem also
said she believes that those who break South Dakota’s abortion laws should be
punished.
“And that’s
the doctors, not the women. I want to make sure that that’s appropriate and
that the women are not punished in this situation, and that we do support them
as we go forward.”