Court agrees with tossing North Dakota abortion law

Bismarck, N. D. — A federal appeals court agreedWednesday that one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws is unconstitutional — a North Dakota statute banning abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

The 8th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a decision last year from U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland, who ruled the law unconstitutional. The law was approved by the Republican-dominated Legislature in 2013, though it was quickly put on hold after the state’s lone abortion clinic filed a lawsuit that July.

Several conservative states have passed restrictive abortion laws in recent years, but abortion rights supporters say North Dakota’s 2013 fetal heartbeat lawwas the strictest in the country.

Supporters said the law was meant to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling that legalized abortion until a fetus is considered viable, usually at 22 to 24 weeks. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the state would appeal the case, though lawmakers have set aside $800,000 to defend the state’s abortion laws.

“Because there is no genuine dispute that (North Dakota’s law) generally prohibits abortions before viability— as the Supreme Court has defined that concept — and because we are bound by Supreme Court precedent holding that states may not prohibit pre-viability abortions, we must affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the plaintiffs,” the appeals court ruling said.

The attorney general’s office said it was reviewing the opinion.

“Once the review is complete, we will make a determination of what further action, if any, is advisable,” Attorney GeneralWayne Stenehjem said in a statement.

The federal district court heard arguments in the case in January, on the same day it considered a challenge to a fetal heartbeat law in Arkansas that bans abortions at 12 weeks. The 8th Circuit struck down Arkansas’ law inMay.

Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple has called the law “a legitimate attempt by a state Legislature to discover the boundaries of Roe v. Wade.” But opponents say it’s an attempt to shutter the state’s only abortion clinic: the Red River Clinic in Fargo, in far eastern North Dakota. The clinic is backed in its legal fight by the Center for Reproductive Rights.