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S.D. Codified Laws § 34-23A-22

Cause of action for certain abortions--Amount of damages--Attorney's fees

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Planned Parenthood, Sioux Falls Clinic v. Miller (1995)

Most recently applied in Center of Life Church v. Nelson (May 2018)

Source: SL 1993, ch 249, § 8; SL 1997, ch 204, § 5.

How often courts cite this section

199420002010201810
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

If any person performs an abortion willfully, wantonly, or maliciously in disregard to § 34-23A-2.1, 34-23A-7, or 34-23A-10.1, the person upon whom such an abortion has been performed, and the parent of a minor child upon whom such an abortion was performed, or any of them, may maintain an action against the person who performed the abortion not to exceed ten thousand dollars in punitive damages. Any person upon whom such an abortion has been attempted may maintain an action against the person who attempted to perform the abortion not to exceed five thousand dollars in punitive damages.

If judgment is rendered in favor of the plaintiff in any such action, the court shall also render judgment for a reasonable attorney's fee in favor of the plaintiff against the defendant. If judgment is rendered in favor of the defendant and the court finds that the plaintiff's suit was frivolous or brought in bad faith, the court shall also render judgment for a reasonable attorney's fee in favor of the defendant against the plaintiff.

Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.