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(CN) — Advertisements at South Dakota gas stations saying “PREGNANT? DON’T WANT BE?” drew the ire of the state with a lawsuit filed in state court.
The complaint follows a cease and desist letter Republican South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley sent Mayday Health earlier in December warning that the state would sue the nonprofit if it didn’t stop what he called the deceptive advertising of the sale of abortion pills.
Abortions are banned in South Dakota except for specific, extenuating circumstances. State law also prohibits the administering or procuring of any medicine, drug or substance to perform an abortion, according to the attorney general.
“Your advertisement directs South Dakota consumers to resources that insinuate abortion-inducing pills are legal in South Dakota, while also urging women not to seek medical care after taking abortion pills and to keep their abortion a secret,” Jackley said in the letter that demanded Mayday Health to remove the gas station add by Dec. 19.
Mayday Health began posting the ads at about 30 gas stations in the state on Dec. 8. The next day, South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden, also a Republican, requested that attorney general’s office launch an investigation into the ad campaign.
“South Dakota has the most pro-life laws in the nation — I am proud of that fact,” Rhoden said in calling for the investigation.
The attorney general claims in the complaint filed Monday that an investigation into Mayday Health’s advertisements uncovered a “plethora of deceptive acts and practices, false pretense, false promises, or misrepresentations, and the concealment, suppression, or omission of material facts in connection with the advertisement of abortion-inducing pills and abortion services; the sale of abortion related merchandise; and in the solicitation of contributions for charitable purposes.”
The ads violate the South Dakota Deceptive Practices and Consumer Protection Act, according to the attorney general, who seeks a court order prohibiting them.
The Massachusetts-based nonprofit launched the day the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and seeks to raise awareness about abortion pills. The ads in South Dakota directs interested parties to the organization’s website.
Mayday Health has used creative tactics to reach women in states with restrictive abortion laws, such as mobile billboards and “pop-up” stores.
Last year in Texas, the nonprofit put up billboards that said “Everything’s bigger in Texas: including our infant mortality rate.”
Representatives of Mayday Health didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
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