A North Dakota judge vacated the state’s near-total abortion ban on Thursday, saying that a pregnant resident had a “fundamental right” to choose an abortion until their fetus was viable.
State District Judge Bruce Romanick also said that the ban was “unconstitutionally void for vagueness” in how it defined exceptions.
The ban, passed by the Republican-led state Legislature last year, allows abortions only in the case of rape or incest, and only then in the first six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they’re pregnant. An exception also exists for patients facing life-threatening health risks.
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The lawsuit challenging the ban was filed by several North Dakota physicians and the Red River Women’s Clinic, which until 2022 was the state’s sole abortion provider. That summer, the clinic moved two miles away, from Fargo across the border to Moorhead, Minnesota.
Romanick found in his 24-page ruling, which is certain to be appealed by the deeply conservative state, that the North Dakota Constitution “guarantees each individual, including women, the fundamental right to make medical judgments affecting his or her bodily integrity, health and autonomy, in consultation with a chosen health care provider free from government interference.”
He also said that a woman has a “right and responsibility to decide what her pregnancy demands of her in the context of her life and in the context of her health.”
Tammi Kromenaker, the director of the Red River Women’s Clinic, told the Daily Beast in a statement that Romanick’s decision gave her hope.
“I feel like the court heard us when we raised our voices against a law that not only ran counter to our state constitution,” she said, “but was too vague for physicians to interpret and which prevented them from providing the high quality care that our communities are entitled to.”
Kromenaker said there were no plans as of Thursday to reopen the clinic in Fargo, according to the Associated Press, meaning that despite the ban being rolled back, the procedure will remain unavailable to patients in North Dakota.
The decision to move to Moorhead was made just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 6-3 decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade and 50 years of precedent.
Spokespeople for Republican Gov. Doug Burgum and the Republican State Attorney General Drew Wrigley did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bridget Turbide, the executive director of North Dakota Right to Life, told The Washington Post that they were “disheartened” by the decision, which she said was not unexpected.
“We are going to keep working and fighting for this issue,” she said.
A total of 18 states currently ban abortion either completely or after six weeks of pregnancy. Legal challenges to many of them remain pending.
