By Dave Andrusko
As anticipated, attorneys for the state of North Dakota have asked District Judge Bruce Romanick to stay his September 12th decision that struck down Senate Bill 2150, the state’s strongly pro-life law on the grounds that the state constitution created a fundamental right to abortion before an unborn baby is viable.
Ingrid Duran, NRL’s Director of State Legislation, explained that the bill “protects unborn children throughout gestation from abortion, except to prevent the death of the mother as well as other exceptions”
“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,” the attorneys for the state wrote on Wednesday. “Simply, this case presents serious, difficult and new legal issues.”
Republican state Sen. Janne Myrdal, who introduced the 2023 bill, expressed confidence the state Supreme Court will overturn Judge Romanick’s ruling.
“I challenge anybody to go through his opinion and find anything but ‘personal opinions,’” she said Monday.
In his 24 page ruling, Judge Romanick wrote
“The abortions statutes at issue in this case infringes on a woman’s fundamental right to procreative autonomy, and are not narrowly tailored to promote women’s health or to protect unborn human life,” he wrote. “The law as currently drafted takes away a woman’s liberty and her right to pursue and obtain safety and happiness.”
He later added
“Pregnant women in North Dakota have a fundamental right to choose abortion before viability exists under the enumerated and unenumerated interests provided by the North Dakota Constitution.”
Judge Romanick concluded
“The Court is left to craft findings and conclusions on an issue of vital public importance when the longstanding precedent on that issue no longer exists federally, and much of the North Dakota precedent on that issue relied on the federal precedent now upended — with relatively no idea how the appellate court in this state will address the issue.”
“Last year, the judge ruled that the State Constitution protected a fundamental right to abortion to protect a pregnant woman’s health or life, but stopped short of saying whether there was a broader right,” according to The New York Times’s Kate Zernike. “And while the judge’s order means that abortion will become legal soon, the procedure will remain unavailable because the only clinic in the state has closed, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which brought the suit in 2022 on behalf of that clinic.”
Background
On April 23, 2023, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed Senate Bill 2150, a bill which sped through the House 76-14 and the Senate 42-5.
That prompted Sen. Janne Myrdal to tell reporters, “North Dakota has always been pro-life and believed in valuing the moms and children both” adding “We’re pretty happy and grateful that the governor stands with that value.”
However, The Red River Women’s Clinic [RRWC], which moved from Fargo to neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, in 2022, sued attorney General Wrigley in July 2023 to prevent the protective law from taking effect.
In October 2023 Judge Romanick rejected a request from Attorney General Wrigley to allow the 2007 law take effect while the lawsuit went forward.