North Dakota judge overturns anortion ban

13/9/2024 6:18

        A North Dakota state court judge on
        Thursday overturned the state's near-total abortion ban,
        clearing the way for abortion to become legal in the Midwestern
        state for the first time in more than a year.
        
        Judge Bruce Romanick in Bismarck found that the state
        constitution protects women's right to an abortion before the
        fetus is viable, siding with abortion providers challenging the
        ban. The order is expected to take effect within 14 days.
        
        "This is a win for reproductive freedom, and means it is now
        much safer to be pregnant in North Dakota," Meetra Mehdizadeh, a
        lawyer at the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights,
        which represents the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
        
        North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley in a statement
        said the state "will appeal this ruling because Judge Romanick's
        opinion inappropriately casts aside the law crafted by the
        legislative branch of our government" and goes against precedent
        from the state's Supreme Court.
        
        North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a Republican, signed the
        law in April 2023, making it a felony for doctors to perform
        abortions.
        
        The law includes an exception for saving the life of the
        mother or in cases where her health is at serious risk, but the
        providers in the lawsuit said that exception was not clear
        enough for doctors to know when an abortion was allowed.
        
        The ban also makes an exception for rape and incest victims,
        but only during the first six weeks of pregnancy, which is
        before many women know they are pregnant.
        
        The providers originally sued North Dakota in 2022 over an
        earlier, stricter abortion ban, which was to take effect in the
        wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that June allowing
        states to ban abortion.
        
        Romanick blocked the 2022 ban in an order that was upheld by
        the state's Supreme Court, and the state legislature responded
        by passing the new ban.
        
        Romanick wrote on Thursday that the state constitution
        protects each North Dakotan's "fundamental right to make medical
        judgments affecting his or her bodily integrity, health and
        autonomy."
        
        "Unborn human life, pre-viability, is not a sufficient
        justification to interfere with a woman's fundamental rights,"
        he wrote.
        
        North Dakota's only abortion clinic moved from Fargo to
        nearby Moorhead, Minnesota, shortly after the U.S. Supreme
        Court's 2022 ruling.
        
        North Dakota is one of more than 20 Republican-led states
        that have banned or restricted abortion after the U.S. Supreme
        Court's 2022 ruling. Some of those laws have since been blocked
        in court or overturned by ballot measures.
        
        At least nine states are expected to vote on ballot measures
        to guarantee abortion rights in the Nov. 5 election. Policy
        regarding abortion and women's reproductive rights in general is
        a key issue in this year's presidential election.