Judge signs order officially repealing North Dakota aborion law

(North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota’s abortion ban was officially repealed Thursday following a judgment entered by South Central District Court Judge Bruce Romanick.

“The law as currently drafted takes away a woman’s fundamental rights to liberty and her fundamental right to pursue and abstain safety and happiness,” he wrote in the judgment. “The law also impermissibly infringes on the constitutional rights for victims of crimes.”

The judgment came two weeks after Romanick found the abortion ban unconstitutionally vague and a violation of health care rights.

The law made all abortions illegal except when the pregnancy poses a serious health risk to the mother, and in cases of rape or incest during the first six weeks of a pregnancy.

Romanick was asked to review the ban as part of a lawsuit brought by a group of reproductive health care doctors and Red River Women’s Clinic, an abortion clinic based in Moorhead, Minnesota.

The clinic used to operate in Fargo but moved across state lines when North Dakota’s previous abortion ban took effect following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to repeal Roe v. Wade.

Plaintiffs argued the law infringed on individual rights and endangered pregnant mothers by not making it clear when abortions may be administered under the health risk exemption.

In his Sept. 12 order, Romanick found that the criminal penalties included in the law could deter doctors from providing abortions for legitimate health reasons.

He also questioned how doctors could determine whether patients are eligible for the rape and incest exemption, given that they do not have legal expertise and that sex crimes are notoriously difficult to investigate.

Attorneys for the state have previously argued that the ban is not vague, and was written with input from North Dakota doctors, including some of the plaintiffs.

The law was adopted with overwhelming support by the state’s Republican-majority Legislature in 2023 following a ruling by the North Dakota Supreme Court finding its previous abortion ban unconstitutional.

Attorney General Drew Wrigley has previously said the state plans to appeal Romanick’s ruling.

Following Romanick’s Sept. 12 order, the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office filed a motion asking Romanick to keep the abortion ban on the books until the North Dakota Supreme Court makes a final decision on the cse.

Romanick will hear arguments on the motion at 9 a.m. Oct. 10 in Bismarck, according to court records filed Thursday.