North Dakota bill would make abortion murder under state law

A law proposed in the North Dakota legislature would make it a crime of murder to knowingly kill or cause the death of an unborn child. 

House Bill No. 1313 declares that a "a person [would be] guilty of murder of an unborn child" if, in part, he or she "intentionally or knowingly causes the death of an unborn child."

The bill’s provisions would not apply in cases of "acts or omissions that are committed pursuant to usual and customary standards of medical practice during diagnostic or therapeutic treatment."

The law does, however, pointedly exclude abortion procedures from that exception.