Overview
- A federal judge in Sioux Falls issued a preliminary injunction on Friday, July 17, stopping South Dakota from enforcing the new advertising ban against New York nonprofit Mayday Health and plaintiff Nancy Turbak Berry.
- The March law criminalizes distribution and advertising for unlawful abortion services, including abortion pills, but the statute itself remains on the books while litigation proceeds.
- Mayday and Turbak Berry sued in May, saying the law bars protected informational speech; Mayday ran gas-station placard ads in December 2025 and does not sell or distribute medications.
- Judge Camela C. Theeler found the state had not tried to show the law met strict scrutiny, writing that the government failed to prove a compelling interest narrowly served by the ban.
- State officials say they will continue to defend the statute and may appeal, and the plaintiffs will seek a permanent order, a fight that could shape how post-Dobbs abortion restrictions apply to informational speech.