By A dispute over abortion-rights advertising in South Dakota has spawned dueling state and federal lawsuits.
A New York-based nonprofit filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday, Jan. 6 against South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley. The lawsuit seeks to prevent Jackley from taking legal action against the nonprofit’s abortion-rights campaign at gas stations across the state.
Jackley asked a South Dakota judge last month to stop the campaign, which includes gas-pump placards asking “Pregnant? Don’t want to be?” and provides a link to Mayday Health’s website. The nonprofit educates people about the safety and effectiveness of abortion pills. It began its ad campaign in early December, and Jackley sent the group a cease-and-desist letter days later.
In the new federal suit, filed in the Southern District of New York, Mayday claims Jackley’s actions are unconstitutional because the nonprofit’s website and advertising materials are protected.
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“We’re not taking the signs down,” said Mayday’s Executive Director Liv Raisner in a December Instagram post. “It’s First Amendment-protected free speech, and information is not illegal.”
Mayday’s lawsuit says Jackley “may not punish Mayday for publishing truthful information on a public issue” such as “ information about legal abortion services in jurisdictions that have made abortion illegal.”
In his cease-and-desist letter, Jackley said abortion pills are illegal in the state, and that Mayday Health publishes incorrect and dangerous information.
“These ads are targeting women — including teenagers — encouraging them to take these pills while misleading them about the potential physical risks,” Jackley said in a December news release. “At the same time, they promote secrecy by urging women not to inform their doctors and children not to tell their parents.”
South Dakota lawmakers adopted an abortion trigger ban in 2005 that took effect in 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Abortions are prohibited in the state, unless the mother’s life is threatened by a pregnancy. State lawmakers also passed legislation in 2022 banning “medical abortion by telemedicine.”
In 2023, medication abortions accounted for 63% of abortions in the country, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute. The drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, commonly used in medication abortions, are also listed on the World Health Organizations’ list of essential medicines. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an attempt by anti-abortion medical organizations to overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s prescribing guidelines for mifepristone.
Jackley has not yet filed a response to Mayday’s federal lawsuit.
