Mayday Health settles with South Dakota, removes gas station ads for abortion pills

South Dakota residents will no longer see advertisements for abortion pills from Mayday Health at gas stations in the state, following a settlement between the pro-abortion group and the State.

Key Takeaways:

• The agreement ends the state’s lawsuit and mandates the New York-based Mayday Health to take down its “deceptive and unlawful” abortion pill advertisements in South Dakota, and to refrain from any future advertising.​

• The settlement follows a December 2025 cease-and-desist letter sent by South Dakota's AG to Mayday Health.

The Details:

According to the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office, on March 5, the state settled its lawsuit against Mayday Health for a controversial ad campaign promoting its website, which refers visitors to online mail-order abortion pill vendors, in a state where abortion is illegal unless the life of the mother is at risk.

The settlement reads, in part:

Mayday Health targeted South Dakota for a campaign beginning December 8, 2025. The campaign consisted of placing placards at gas stations that read, in prominent letters, "PREGNANT? DON'T WANT TO BE?" Below the main tagline of the placard was a prompt for consumers to "LEARN MORE AT MAYDAY.HEALTH."...

MAYDAY.HEALTH... states that third parties provide abortion pills "in all 50 states" regardless of the fact that abortion pills are illegal in South Dakota....

The South Dakota Attorney General filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in South Dakota State Court... on December 22, 2025... In the motion, the State alleged that Mayday Health's gas station placards constituted 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 in violation of [state law].

The advertisement campaign was featured on screens at roughly 30 gas stations statewide before officials filed suit.

Attorney General Marty Jackley has contended that Mayday’s ads breached South Dakota’s consumer protection laws because they promoted abortion pills as if the state legally sanctioned them. 

The Backstory:

In a December cease-and-desist letter, Jackley accused Mayday Health of deceptive messaging that would put women at risk. Jackley accused Mayday of targeting “women and young girls, encouraging them to take abortion pills while misleading them about the physical risks,” and highlighted that “South Dakota law governs, and the misleading advertisements must be, and are, stopped.”

At first, Mayday Health dismissed Attorney General Jackley’s cease-and-desist order, claiming that its pro-abortion advertisements were protected under the First Amendment’s free speech clause. 

In response, Mayday countersued in federal court, seeking an emergency order to block South Dakota from acting against the ad campaign.

But Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York refused to step in, explaining that she could not interfere with related proceedings already underway in South Dakota state court, where Jackley had sued to stop the ads. 

During a hearing in February, Failla expressed her belief that “the proper way to view Mayday’s website and the materials on it” is as “noncommercial speech subject to protection under the First Amendment.” 

“I do believe that the law requires me to abstain from exercising federal jurisdiction in this case,” declared Failla. “I trust that the South Dakota court will get it right.”

But ultimately, both sides agreed on a settlement that secures removal of the contested ads statewide.​

The Bottom Line:

For pro-lifers in South Dakota and beyond, this settlement goes far from being a procedural victory. It is also a reinforcement that glossy and deceptive marketing campaigns should not be allowed to undermine state protections for mothers and their unborn children.