North Dakota judge strikes down the state’s abortion ban

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A state judge struck down North Dakota’s ban on abortion Thursday, saying that the state constitution creates a fundamental right to access abortion before a fetus is viable.

In his ruling, state District Judge Bruce Romanick also said that the law violates the state constitution because it is too vague.

Under the judge’s order, abortion would be legal in North Dakota, but the state currently has no clinics performing them, and the Republican-dominated state government would be expected to appeal the ruling.

The state’s only abortion provider had been the Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo, but it moved a few miles to Moorehead, Minnesota, in 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to ban abortion. Director Tammi Kromenaker said there are no plans to reopen a clinic in North Dakota but Thursday’s decision “gives us hope.”

“We feel like the court heard our concerns and the physicians in North Dakota’s concerns about a law that we felt went too far,” she said.

The offices of Republican Gov. Doug Burgum and GOP state Attorney General Drew Wrigley did not immediately respond to the ruling, though Wrigley’s office said he would issue a statement Thursday.

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