A portion of state legislation that physicians claim puts them in danger of prosecution if they conduct an abortion to save a patient’s life or health will not be blocked by a North Dakota judge.
In North Dakota, a judge decided on Tuesday not to overturn a portion of a state statute that medical professionals claim puts them in danger of legal action if they conduct an abortion to preserve a patient’s life or health. The preliminary injunction request “is not appropriate and the Plaintiffs have presented no authority for the Court to grant the specific relief requested,” according to State District Judge Bruce Romanick. The case will proceed in court; an August jury trial is scheduled. In response to issues that could present “a risk of infection, bleeding, high blood pressure, or which otherwise require the use of one’s own professional judgment to perform an abortion,” the motion sought the North Dakota judge to prohibit the state from implementing the law against doctors.
Physicians face “the harm of having the threat of criminal prosecution hanging over their heads every time they treat a patient with a medical complication,” attorney Meetra Mehdizadeh, of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in court arguments last month. In a statement Tuesday, Mehdizadeh said, “Though we are disappointed by today’s decision, the court did not reach the constitutional questions at the heart of this case, and we remain confident that we will prevail after the court hears further evidence of how this law harms pregnant North Dakotans.”
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North Dakota outlaws abortion except for cases in which women could face death or a “serious health risk.” People who perform abortions could be charged with a felony under the law, but patients would not. The North Dakota judge said the plaintiffs appeared to request that he, “by way of a preliminary injunction, change application of the exception from ‘reasonable medical judgment’ to ‘good faith medical judgment.’ Plaintiffs have cited the Court with no legal authority that would allow the Court to rewrite the statute in this manner under the pretense of providing injunctive relief.”
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The state’s revised abortion laws also provide an exception for pregnancies caused by rape and incest, but only in the first six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant. It also allows for treatment of ectopic and molar pregnancies, which are nonviable situations. Republican state Sen. Janne Myrdal, who brought the 2023 bill revising the laws, welcomed the judge’s ruling. “I think we have something that’s very clear for physicians to see,” she said. “I think it’s common sense what we put in as far as the health exceptions, and it goes with the intent of the legislators, so I applaud this North Dakota judge for reading into it and realizing that the authority lies with us, as far as writing the law, and interpreting it simply shouldn’t be that hard for the physicians.”
Following the Dobbs decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which overruled the court’s historic Roe v. Wade opinion from 1973 that established a national right to abortion, the Red River Women’s Clinic filed a lawsuit against the state in 2022. The complaint claimed that the state’s since-repealed trigger restriction was unconstitutional and would take immediate effect in the event that Roe v. Wade was overturned. The clinic relocated from Fargo to Moorhead, Minnesota, a nearby city where abortion is permitted. The ruling was confirmed in March by the state Supreme Court. The North Dakota judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing the ban from going into effect in 2022.
“It is evident that North Dakotans have a right to enjoy and defend life as well as a right to pursue and obtain safety, which necessarily includes a pregnant woman’s fundamental right to obtain an abortion to preserve her life or her health,” Chief Justice Jon Jensen stated in the court’s ruling. The state’s abortion laws were revised shortly after by a bill that was approved by the Republican-controlled legislature in North Dakota judge and signed into law by Governor Doug Burgum in April. A number of physicians with expertise in obstetrics, gynecology, and maternal-fetal medicine joined the clinic’s June revised lawsuit.
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