North Dakota to appeal order striking down state's abortion law

(The Center Square) - North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said the state will appeal a district court decision to strike down North Dakota's abortion law.

South Central District Court Judge Bruce Romanick said Thursday the law was unconstitutional due to its "vagueness" and that "pregnant women in North Dakota have a fundamental right to choose abortion before viability exists."

"While I have appropriate regard for the State District Court, a careful reading of Judge Romanick’s decision reveals flaws in his analysis and interpretation of controlling precedent," Wrigley said in a statement. "Accordingly, the State of North Dakota will appeal this ruling because Judge Romanick’s opinion inappropriately casts aside the law crafted by the legislative branch of our government and ignores the applicable and controlling case law previously announced by the North Dakota Supreme Court.”

The Center for Reproductive Rights filed the lawsuit on behalf of the state's only abortion clinic, Red River Women's Center. They challenged the state's ban that allowed abortion in cases of rape or incest only in the first six weeks and for medical emergencies.

Romanick said in his ruling, posted on The Center for Reproductive Rights website, that physicians cannot be sure if an abortion is medically allowable under the law. Performing an abortion is a Class C felony under the law passed in 2023.

"As currently written, a North Dakota physician may provide an abortion with the subjective intent to prevent death or a serious health risk, yet still be held criminally liable if after the fact, other physicians deem that the abortion was not necessary or was not a reasonable medical judgement," Romanick said in the order.

Abortion is a decision that belongs "to the individual, not the government," the order said.

"Unborn human life, pre-viability, is not a sufficient justification to interfere with a woman's fundamental rights," the judge said.

The Center for Reproductive Rights called the ruling a "win for reproductive freedom."

“Hospitals and doctors no longer have their hands tied and can provide abortions to patients with complications," said Meetra Mehdizadeh, staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights. "However, the damage that North Dakota’s extreme abortion bans have done cannot be repaired overnight. There are no abortion clinics left in North Dakota. That means most people seeking an abortion still won’t be able to get one, even though it is legal."