North Dakota Supreme Court overturns earlier lower court ruling and bans abortion in the state

Abortion is illegal again in North Dakota after the state Supreme Court overturned a lown decision by alower court on Friday, allowing a near-total ban to go into effect.

The law prohibits anyone from performing an abortion, though it exempts individual patients. Along those lines, infringing the ban is considered a Class C felony, for which doctors could face a maximum of five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both penalties, according to The Hill review.

The only exceptions

According to the North Dakota Criminal Code, these apply only when it is determined by reasonable medical judgment that the abortion is necessary to prevent death or serious risk to the health of the pregnant woman, or if the pregnancy results from rape or incest reported within a specified time frame. Specifically:

Background to the North Dakota decision

In September 2024, a district judge had blocked the rule as unconstitutionally vague, especially because of ambiguous exceptions related to maternal health. Three of the five Supreme Court justices concurred with that view and felt that the confusing wording left physicians in legal uncertainty.

However, the North Dakota Constitution requires a vote of at least four justices to declare a state law unconstitutional. When that supermajority was not reached, the ban remained in force and went into immediate effect.