State asks judge to pause ruling that struck down North Dakota’s abortion ban

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The state of North Dakota is asking a judge to pause his ruling from last week that struck down the state’s abortion ban until the state Supreme Court rules on a planned appeal.

The state’s motion to stay a pending appeal was filed Wednesday. State District Judge Bruce Romanick ruled last week that North Dakota’s abortion ban “is unconstitutionally void for vagueness,” and that pregnant women in the state have a fundamental right to abortion before viability under the state constitution.

Attorneys for the state said “a stay is warranted until a decision and mandate has been issued by the North Dakota Supreme Court from the appeal that the State will be promptly pursuing. Simply, this case presents serious, difficult and new legal issues.”

In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to an abortion. Soon afterward, the only abortion clinic in North Dakota moved from Fargo to neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, and challenged North Dakota’s since-repealed trigger ban outlawing most abortions.

In 2023, North Dakota’s Republican-controlled Legislature revised the state’s abortion laws amid the ongoing lawsuit. The amended ban outlawed performance of all abortions as a felony crime but for procedures to prevent a pregnant woman’s death or a “serious health risk” to her, and in cases of rape or incest but only up to six weeks. The law took effect in April 2023.

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