N.D. COURT UPHOLDS ABORTION BAN BLOCK

The North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a state abortion ban will remain blocked while a lawsuit over its constitutionality proceeds.

The ban was designed to take effect once the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. But a district judge had put it on hold this summer while the Red River Women’s Clinic (RRWC) pursued a lawsuit arguing the state constitution protected a right to an abortion.

“While the regulation of abortion is within the authority of the legislature under the North Dakota Constitution, RRWC has demonstrated likely success on the merits that there is a fundamental right to an abortion in the limited instances of life-saving and health-preserving circumstances, and the statute is not narrowly tailored to satisfy strict scrutiny,” Chief Justice Jon J. Jensen wrote in the ruling.

The law — one of many abortion-restricting measures passed by state legislatures in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Roe — includes exceptions to save the life of the mother and in cases of rape or incest. Otherwise, a doctor who performs an abortion would face a felony charge, which abortion rights supporters say could stop doctors from performing abortions even if the mother’s health is at risk.

The Red River Women’s Clinic — the state’s only abortion clinic — shut its doors this summer and moved operations a short distance from Fargo to Moorhead, Minnesota, where abortion remains legal. But the clinic’s owner is still pursuing the lawsuit.

Republican Attorney General Drew Wrigley was critical of the ruling. He said in a statement that the state Supreme Court chose “a path of its very own, by holding there is now also an un-defined ‘health’ exception to abortion regulation.”

Wrigley noted that state lawmakers are working on legislation “that recrafts North Dakota’s abortion laws, and they will now have the opportunity to enact the will of North Dakotans, aware of the latest North Dakota Supreme Court pronouncement.”