BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) 鈥� North Dakota鈥檚 abortion ban will not be enforced while the state appeals an the state's highest court ruled Friday.
That appeal has yet to fully play out in the state Supreme Court after a judge struck down the law in September.
North Dakota has had no abortion providers since the only one to neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, in 2022. The only scenarios in which North Dakotans can currently obtain an abortion in the state would be for life- or health-preserving reasons at a hospital.
Attorneys for the state the North Dakota to grant a stay pending appeal. They said a stay 鈥渋s warranted because this case presents serious, difficult, and unresolved constitutional questions that are of profound importance to the people of this State,鈥� among other reasons.
State District Judge Bruce Romanick had earlier a saying: 鈥淚t would be non-sensical for this Court to keep a law it has found to be unconstitutional in effect pending appeal.鈥�
The Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents the abortion clinic and several physicians who challenged the law, opposed a stay. The court heard on the state鈥檚 request for a stay in November.
鈥淭oday鈥檚 decision to keep the abortion ban blocked was the only logical outcome," Meetra Mehdizadeh, senior staff attorney at the center, said in a statement. "People are dying without access to abortion, and still the State sought to stop pregnant North Dakotans facing dangerous situations from getting the care they need. It鈥檚 shameful. We will not stop fighting until this ban is struck down once and for all.鈥�
North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley did not immediately respond to a text message or a phone call.
The case has had a winding road since the Red River Women鈥檚 Clinic the state鈥檚 previous abortion ban in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court .
, North Dakota鈥檚 Republican-controlled Legislature the state鈥檚 abortion laws. criminalized the performance of an abortion as a felony, with the only exceptions to save the life of a mother or to prevent a 鈥渟erious health risk鈥� to her. The ban also allowed for abortions in cases of rape or incest but only up to six weeks gestation, which is often before many women know they are pregnant. the law was unconstitutionally vague and its health exception too narrow.
Justice Douglas Bahr recused himself from the state's request for a stay. In an email to The Associated Press in which he cited the state judicial ethics code, Bahr said he represented the state as solicitor general in a previous Supreme Court case involving the clinic.
Jack Dura, The Associated Press
