Kristi Noem Squirms When Asked if South Dakota Would Force 10-Year-Old Rape Victim to Give Birth Instead of Having an Abortion

Governor Kristi Noem (R-SD) struggled with questions from CNN’s Dana Bash about whether the restrictive abortion laws in her state would force a sexually-abused young woman to have a baby.

Noem gave Bash a broad-range interview on Sunday for State of the Union, and at one point of the conversation, the CNN anchor turned to a recent news story from the Indianapolis Star about child abuse doctor in Ohio who was contacted by an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indiana. The call was about a 10-year-old patient who had to leave Ohio to get an abortion because she was six weeks and three days pregnant, and Ohio law forbids the procedure after six weeks when fetal cardiac activity begins.

Bash brought up the story while noting that South Dakota had trigger laws in place so that after the strike down of Roe v. Wade, abortion is banned in the state except for when the mother’s life is at risk. As such, Bash was prompted to ask Noem “Will the state of South Dakota, going forward, force a 10-year-old in that very same situation to have a baby?”

Instead of directly answering the question, Noem decided to focus on the man who raped the girl from the Star’s report.

“What’s incredible is that nobody is talking about the perverted, horrible and deranged individual that raped a 10-year-old, and what are we doing about that?” said Noem. “As much as we 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.”

Bash acknowledged Noem’s point, but she stayed on topic by pointing out that the story is focused on a young child.

“This tragedy is horrific. I can’t even imagine. I’ve never had anybody in my family or myself gone through anything like this. I can’t even imagine,” Noem said. As she continued to reiterate South Dakota’s current law, Bash asked Noem if “you would be okay with a 10-year-old girl having to have a baby?”

“No, I’m never okay with that. That story will keep me up at night. It breaks my heart,” Noem said. Asked if she would try to change state law to grant an exception to deal with situations like this, Noem refused, saying “I don’t believe a tragic situation should be perpetuated by another tragedy…There’s more that we’ve 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.”

The interview went on with Bash asking whether a 10 year old child in this scenario would qualify for an abortion in South Dakota since she might not be physically mature enough to handle a pregnancy without complications. She also asked Noem if she would support a Republican push to ban abortion nationwide.

Watch above, via CNN.