In June 2018 a lawmaker in South Dakota said that business owners should be allowed “to turn away people of color,” while defending the rights of a bakery to refuse to make a cake for a same-sex wedding.

In February 2018 the South Dakota legislature passed a new abortion restriction limiting what doctors can say to patients.

In January 2018 a state senator in South Dakota, while interrupting an interfaith gathering at the state capitol, advocated banning Muslim individuals from traveling to the US.