diff --git a/pins/drivers.py b/pins/drivers.py
index 633f74a..b78a788 100644
--- a/pins/drivers.py
+++ b/pins/drivers.py
@@ -124,15 +124,10 @@ def load_data(
             try:
                 import rdata
 
-                # Can be removed once support for Python 3.8 is dropped.
-                # The issue is that the last `rdata` available on Python 3.8 was v0.9,
-                # which doesn'thave the same `rdata.read_rds()` function.
+                # Equivalent to `rdata.read_rds(f)` but compatible with Python 3.8.
                 # See https://github.com/rstudio/pins-python/pull/265
-                if not hasattr(rdata, "read_rds"):
-                    parsed = rdata.parser.parse_file(f)
-                    rdata.conversion.convert(parsed)
-
-                return rdata.read_rds(f)
+                parsed = rdata.parser.parse_file(f)
+                return rdata.conversion.convert(parsed)
             except ModuleNotFoundError:
                 raise ModuleNotFoundError(
                     "Install the 'rdata' package to attempt to convert 'rds' files into Python objects."