Because there is no genuine dispute that H.B. 1456 generally prohibits abortions before viability — as the Supreme Court has defined that concept — and because we are bound by Supreme Court precedent holding that states may not prohibit pre-viability abortions, we must affirm [the lower court ruling].
H. B. 1456 which was passed in 2013 by a Republican dominated legislature and signed into law by GOP Governor Jack Dalrymple, would have made it a Class C felony for a doctor to perform an abortion
if the fetus had a detectable heartbeat. Had the law been
implemented it would have effectively banned abortions as early as six
weeks into a pregnancy.
The Supreme Court has defined fetal viability as
occurring around the 24th week of pregnancy. The 1973 Roe v. Wade
Supreme Court ruling essentially prohibits states from banning abortions
prior to the point of fetal viability. The appeals court argued that
the North Dakota law was clearly unconstitutional because it violated
the constitutional precedent set forth by the Supreme Court.
North Dakota has only one clinic in the entire state
the provides abortion services. Had H.B. 1456 gone into law, some North
Dakota women would have been in a situation where they were more than 7
hours driving time away from the nearest clinic that would perform
abortions after the 6th week of pregnancy.
The
court’s ruling affirms that women have a right to choose whether or not
to terminate their pregnancy during the first trimester. North Dakota’s
overzealous legislature was attempting to push through a law that
clearly violated a woman’s right to choose, even in the earliest stages
of her pregnancy. Thankfully, the appeals court on Wednesday put an end
to that law, and upheld a woman’s right to choose in the state of North
Dakota.
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