A state judge in North Dakota has issued a ruling overturning the state’s abortion ban that protects the lives of unborn children.
Although no abortion centers operate in the state, the ruling makes abortion legal for the time being while the case continues.
“Pregnant women have a fundamental right to choose abortion before viability exists,” North Dakota District Judge Bruce Romanick wrote, even though the Supreme Court ruled no such right exists.
The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Red River Women’s Clinic, arguing that North Dakota’s SB 2150 was so vague that it put abortionists who performed an abortion at risk of prosecution.
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The legislature initially passed HB 1466 in 2007 as a “trigger” ban intended to limit abortion services if the US Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that established the constitutional right to abortion. When the Supreme Court reversed Roe in June 2022, North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley immediately triggered the ban. The state Supreme Court blocked HB 1466 in March 2023, finding the state constitution implicitly included the right to an abortion to preserve the pregnant person’s health or life. The following month, the North Dakota legislature passed the amended ban, SB 2150, that was at issue in Tuesday’s decision.
The good news for the state is that there are not abortion centers operating in North Dakota today. The only abortion facility in North Dakota, the Red River Women’s Clinic, which sued the state over its previous abortion ban that was enacted prior to Dobbs, has moved across the border to Minnesota.
That means no babies are currently being killed by abortions in North Dakota and that’s good news for pro-life advocates.
