North Dakota Judge Reverses State Abortion Ban, Reports Reuters

By Brendan Pierson

A judge in North Dakota has overturned the state’s near-total abortion ban, allowing for the legalization of abortion in the state for the first time in over a year. Judge Bruce Romanick, based in Bismarck, determined that the state constitution guarantees women’s rights to abortion prior to fetal viability, siding with abortion providers who challenged the legislation. The ruling is anticipated to take effect within 14 days.

"This is a victory for reproductive freedom and indicates that it will now be significantly safer to be pregnant in North Dakota," stated Meetra Mehdizadeh, an attorney from the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents the plaintiffs.

North Dakota’s Attorney General Drew Wrigley expressed intentions to appeal the decision, arguing that the ruling undermines laws established by the legislative branch and contradicts previous rulings from the state’s Supreme Court.

In April 2023, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a Republican, signed the controversial law, which made it a felony for doctors to perform abortions. While the law allows exceptions for saving the mother’s life or in serious health risk scenarios, the plaintiffs argued that these exceptions were too vague to be consistently applied by medical professionals.

The legislation includes provisions for rape and incest victims, but this exception is limited to the first six weeks of pregnancy, a timeframe before many women are even aware of their condition.

The legal battle began in 2022 when providers sued over a stricter abortion ban proposed following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that year allowing states to implement their own abortion restrictions. Judge Romanick had previously blocked this earlier ban, a decision that was upheld by the state’s Supreme Court, prompting the legislature to pass the new law.

In his ruling, Romanick emphasized that the state constitution safeguards each individual’s fundamental right to make personal medical decisions pertaining to bodily integrity and health. He noted that the potential life of a fetus before viability does not justify interference with these fundamental rights.

North Dakota’s sole abortion clinic relocated from Fargo to Moorhead, Minnesota, soon after the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling.

North Dakota is among over 20 Republican-led states that have imposed bans or restrictions on abortion since the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2022. Some of these restrictions have been blocked by the courts or nullified through ballot initiatives.

Looking ahead, at least nine states are slated to hold votes on ballot measures aimed at securing abortion rights in the upcoming November elections. Additionally, policies related to abortion and women’s reproductive rights are pivotal topics in the current presidential election cycle.