Bismarck, North Dakota – A judge in North Dakota has rejected a request for a temporary block on a portion of the state’s abortion laws, which would have allowed doctors to perform the procedure to save a patient’s life or health. State District Judge Bruce Romanick stated that a preliminary injunction was not appropriate and that the plaintiffs had failed to provide any legal authority for the specific relief they requested. The request sought to prevent the state from enforcing the law against physicians who, in their medical judgment, deemed it necessary to perform an abortion due to complications that could endanger the patient, such as a risk of infection, hemorrhage, or high blood pressure.
Under North Dakota’s revised abortion laws, all abortions are prohibited except in cases where women face death or a serious health risk. While performing an abortion can be a felony punishable offense for doctors, patients would not face charges. The updated laws also make an exception for pregnancies resulting from rape and incest, but only within the first six weeks when many women may not even be aware of their pregnancies. The laws also provide for medical intervention in nonviable pregnancies, such as ectopic or molar pregnancies.
The Red River Women’s Clinic had previously filed a lawsuit against the state after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that had established a nationwide right to abortion in 1973. The lawsuit specifically targeted a trigger ban that North Dakota had enacted, which would have immediately gone into effect if Roe v. Wade was overturned. As a result of the ban, the clinic relocated from Fargo to Moorhead, Minnesota, where abortion remains legal.
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