BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) 鈥� North Dakota鈥檚 highest court ruled Friday to keep the state鈥檚 overturned abortion ban from being enforced during an appeal of a decision by a judge that in September.
Attorneys for the state the North Dakota to grant a stay pending appeal. They said a stay 鈥渋s warranted because this case presents serious, difficult, and unresolved constitutional questions that are of profound importance to the people of this State,鈥� among other reasons.
State District Judge Bruce Romanick had earlier a saying: 鈥淚t would be non-sensical for this Court to keep a law it has found to be unconstitutional in effect pending appeal.鈥� The Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents the abortion clinic and several physicians who challenged the law, opposed a stay.
The court heard on the state's request for a stay in November.
The case has had a winding road since the Red River Women鈥檚 Clinic the state鈥檚 previous abortion ban in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court .
, North Dakota鈥檚 Republican-controlled Legislature the state鈥檚 abortion laws. criminalized the performance of an abortion as a felony, with the only exceptions to save the life of a mother or to prevent a 鈥渟erious health risk鈥� to her. The ban also allowed for abortions in cases of rape or incest but only up to six weeks gestation, which is often before many women know they are pregnant. the law was unconstitutionally vague and its health exception too narrow.
North Dakota has had no abortion providers since the clinic to neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota in 2022. The only scenarios in which North Dakotans can currently obtain an abortion in the state would be for life- or health-preserving reasons at a hospital.
Justice Douglas Bahr recused himself from the state's request for a stay. In an email to The Associated Press in which he cited the state judicial ethics code, Bahr said he represented the state as solicitor general in a previous Supreme Court case involving the clinic.
Jack Dura, The Associated Press