South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem did her best to deflect how she and her state would handle the case of a 10-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped.
Gov. Noem appeared on CNN Sunday and discussed her state's anti-abortion law, which prohibits such procedures except to save the life of the mother.
The Governor immediately tried to change the subject and talk about how a monster could do such a thing and how people like him needed accountability. CNN's Dana Bash pressed her to get back on topic, and the Governor danced around the subject.
The 10-year-old lives in Ohio, and was 6 weeks and 3 days pregnant ... 3 days too late to get an abortion in that state. She reportedly traveled to Indiana for the procedure.
Bash couldn't pin the Governor down ... she asked, "Because [the] trigger law [in South Dakota] was passed before you became governor, I wanted you to be clear: Will the state of South Dakota going forward force a 10-year-old in that very same situation to have a baby?"
Noem's answer ... "You know what I think is incredible, Dana, in this tragic story? What’s incredible is that nobody’s talking about the pervert, the horrible and deranged individual, that raped a 10-year-old. What are we doing about those individuals that do this to these children?"
She added ... "Every single life — every single life is precious."
It seems the Governor is saying the little girl should be forced to give birth ... "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."
South Dakota is one of a number of states that is either severely restricting or altogether banning abortions in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.