By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) – A North Dakota state court judge on Thursday overturned the state’s nearly complete 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 abortion until the fetus is not viable, and sided with abortion providers who challenged the ban. The decree is expected to enter into force within 14 days.
“This is a victory for reproductive freedom and it means it’s now safer to get pregnant in North Dakota,” said Meetra Mehdizadeh, an attorney with the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents the plaintiffs.
North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said in a statement that the state “will appeal this decision because Judge Romanik’s opinion inappropriately overrules the law made by our government’s legislature” and contradicts state Supreme Court precedent.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a Republican, signed the law in April 2023 making it a felony for doctors to perform abortions.
The law provides an exception in cases where the mother’s life or health is at serious risk, but providers in the lawsuit said the exception is not clear enough for doctors to know when an abortion is permitted.
The ban also makes an exception for victims of rape and consanguinity, but only during the first six weeks of pregnancy, which is before many women know they are pregnant.
The providers originally sued North Dakota over an earlier, stricter abortion ban that was set to go into effect after June 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to ban abortions.
Romanick blocked the 2022 ban in an order upheld by the state Supreme Court, and the state legislature responded by passing a new ban.
Romanick wrote Thursday that the state constitution protects every North Dakotan’s “fundamental right to make medical decisions that affect his bodily integrity, health and autonomy.”
“Unborn human life, viability, is not a sufficient basis for interfering 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 decision.
North Dakota is one of more than 20 Republican-led states to ban or restrict abortion following a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision. 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 ensure abortion rights in the Nov. 5 election. Policy on abortion and women’s reproductive rights in general is a major issue in this year’s presidential election.
