North Dakota judge strikes down state abortion ban

A state district judge struck down North Dakota's abortion ban Thursday, saying that the state constitution creates a “fundamental right” to access abortion before a fetus is viable. 

District Judge Bruce Romanick wrote in an order that the abortion law — one of the strictest in the nation — was too vague.

The court concluded that pregnant women in the state have a "fundamental right to choose abortion before viability exists under the enumerated and unenumerated interests protected by" the state's constitution.

"The Court concludes [the law] violates the Constitution of the State of North Dakota and is void for vagueness and of no effect," the order stated.

Romanick wrote that implicit in the right to personal autonomy, liberty and happiness is "a woman’s right and responsibility to decide what her pregnancy demands of her in the context of her life and in the context of her health."

"Prior to viability, a woman must retain the ultimate control over her own destiny, her own body, and ultimately the path of her life," he continued. "A woman’s choice of whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term shapes the very nature and future course of her life, on nearly every possible level. The Court finds that such a choice, at least pre-viability, must belong to the individual woman and not to the government. "

While the judge acknowledged the U.S. Supreme Court's move to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that protected the right to an abortion, he wrote: "This Court sees no reason to do the same under North Dakota precedent and the North Dakota Constitution."

The ruling stemmed from a request from the state to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a North Dakota clinic in 2022. That clinic has since moved across state lines to Minnesota.

It’s likely that the Republican-controlled state government will appeal the decision. Even though the judge’s ruling would make abortion legal in the meantime, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, there are no longer any clinics performing abortions in North Dakota.

North Dakota's ban prohibited abortion at all stages of pregnancy, except in the case of death or serious health risk. It also created an exception for victims of rape and incest up to six weeks gestation.