The South Dakota Effect: A Potential Blow to Abortion Rights

By Alex Stein

Many of us are familiar with the “California Effect.” California’s hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emission standards for cars are more stringent than the federal EPA standards and more costly to comply with. Yet, California’s emission standards have become the national standard since automobile manufacturers have found it too expensive to produce cars with different emission systems – one for California and another for other states – and, obviously, did not want to pass up on California, the biggest car market in the nation.

Such regulatory spillover may also occur in the abortion regulation area as a consequence of the legislative reforms implemented by South Dakota and thirteen other states. These reforms include statutory enactments that require doctors to tell patients that abortion might lead to depression, suicidal thoughts and even to suicide. Failure to give this warning to a patient violates the patient’s right to informed consent and makes the doctor liable in torts. Read More

Of Competence and Referrals: When a Doctor’s Failure to Refer a Patient to another Physician Constitutes Malpractice?

By Alex Stein

Four days ago, the Supreme Court of South Dakota delivered an important decision on when a physician’s failure to refer a patient to another doctor constitutes malpractice. St. John v. Peterson, — N.W.2d —- (S.D. 2015), 2015 WL 3505401. This decision hides in the Court’s rulings on the admissibility of evidence, and so it’s important to give it the publicity it deserves.

The Court decided—correctly, in my opinion—that a physician has a duty to refer her patient to another doctor when she is not competent to carry out the procedure the patient needs or when the referral is part of the customary practices and protocols followed by her peers. The availability of other, more experienced, better skilled and better performing doctors is not a good reason in and of itself for imposing a referral obligation on the physician.

The Court had very good reasons for making that decision. Read More