A North Dakota judge on Thursday denied a request from the state to reinstate a pro-life law protecting preborn children from abortion.
The law, SB 2150, protects nearly all preborn children by allowing induced abortion only in cases of rape and incest within the first six weeks of pregnancy. Following a lawsuit filed by the Red River Women’s Clinic abortion business, the law was overturned by State District Judge Bruce Romanick in September on the basis that it was “unconstitutionally void for vagueness.”
Romanick also stated, “[P]regnant women in North Dakota have a fundamental right to choose abortion before viability exists.”
The state had asked Romanick to suspend his ruling while it appealed to the state’s Supreme Court, arguing that the law should stand while the high court considers the case.
“It requires four or five justices to declare this statute unconstitutional — not, respectfully, one district court judge,” argued Special Assistant Attorney General Daniel Gaustad. “Let’s let the North Dakota Supreme Court decide this issue and let the law remain in place like it has been.”
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Romanick, however, disagreed. “The Court has found the law unconstitutional under the state constitution,” he wrote. “It would be non-sensical for this Court to keep a law it has found to be unconstitutional in effect pending appeal.”
There is still a possibility that the Supreme Court could overturn Romanick’s block on the law while it considers the state’s appeal. State Sen. Janne Myrdal, who sponsored the pro-life legislation, told The Bismarck Tribune she is confident the Supreme Court will ultimately rule in the state’s favor, stating her belief that Romanick’s ruling had no legal standing.
“I challenge anybody to go through his opinion and find anything but ‘personal opinions,’” she said last month.
With the law on hold, abortion continues to be legal in North Dakota until viability — an arbitrary guideline usually considered to be around 24 weeks. However, there are currently no stand-alone abortion facilities in the state, as the Red River Women’s Clinic moved across the border to Minnesota after filing its lawsuit last year.
