North Dakota court upholds near-total abortion ban

A panel of North Dakota state Supreme Court justices has upheld a law that makes it a crime to perform an abortion in the state.

The ruling overturns a lower court’s ruling that temporarily blocked the new law. Friday’s ruling came after three of the court’s five judges ruled that the law was invalid, but needed the support of four justices to strike it down.

Violating state law is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $10,000 (£7,600).

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal right to abortion in 2022, leaving it up to states to regulate it. North Dakota now joins 12 other states that have passed a total ban on abortion.

The move comes after the law was challenged by a state abortion clinic. The courts ruled that the ban could not take effect while the trial was pending.

The law contains exceptions if the mother’s life is threatened, although victims of rape and incest can only have an abortion during the first six weeks of pregnancy — which opponents say happens before many women know they are pregnant.

In their ruling, the justices found that the state constitution does not provide a right to abortion and that the new law “provides adequate and fair warning to those who attempt to comply.”

North Dakota Republican Attorney Drew Wrigley praised the decision, saying in a statement that the high court “upheld this important pro-life legislation, passed by the People’s Legislature.”

“The Attorney General’s Office has a solemn responsibility to uphold the laws of North Dakota, and today those laws were upheld.”

Red River Women’s Clinic — which was the last abortion provider in North Dakota before moving to Minnesota in 2022 — has yet to respond to the decision.