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Doctors found in violation could face up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine
Jack DuraSaturday 22 November 2025 00:35 GMT
CloseAbortion Medication Controversy
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Abortion has been reinstated as illegal in North Dakota after the state's Supreme Court failed to secure the necessary majority to uphold a judge’s decision that had struck down the ban last year.
Performing an abortion is now a felony crime, though patients are specifically protected from prosecution. Doctors found in violation could face up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The court's five justices were divided, with three agreeing the ban was unconstitutionally vague under the state constitution, while two deemed the law constitutional. North Dakota's constitution mandates that at least four of the five justices must concur for a law to be declared unconstitutional – a stringent requirement that ultimately prevented the lower court's ruling from being affirmed.
The court's five justices were divided, with three agreeing the ban was unconstitutionally vague under the state constitution, while two deemed the law constitutional. (AP Photo/Jack Dura)North Dakota Republican Attorney Drew Wrigley welcomed the ruling, saying, “The Supreme Court has upheld this important pro-life legislation, enacted by the people’s Legislature. The Attorney General’s office has the solemn responsibility of defending the laws of North Dakota, and today those laws have been upheld.”
Republican state Sen. Janne Myrdal, who introduced the 2023 legislation that became the law banning abortion, said she is “thrilled and grateful that two justices that are highly respected saw the truth of the matter, that this is fully constitutional for the mother and for the unborn child and thereafter for that sake.”
The ruling means access to abortion in North Dakota will be outlawed. Even after a judge had earlier struck down the ban last year, the only scenarios for a patient to obtain an abortion in North Dakota had been for life- or health-preserving reasons in a hospital.
The only abortion provider relocated in 2022 from Fargo to nearby Moorhead, Minnesota.
Justice Daniel Crothers, one of the three judges to vote against the ban, wrote that the district court decision wasn’t wrong.
“The vagueness in the law relates to when an abortion can be performed to preserve the life and health of the mother," Crothers wrote. "After striking this invalid provision, the remaining portions of the law would be inoperable.”
North Dakota's newly confirmed ban prohibits the performance of an abortion as a felony crime. The only exceptions are for rape or incest in the first six weeks — before many women know they are pregnant — and to prevent the mother’s death or a “serious health risk” to her.
North Dakota joins 12 other states enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Another four bar it at or around six weeks gestational age.
Judge Bruce Romanick had struck down the ban the state Legislature passed in 2023, less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and opened the door to the state-level bans, largely turning the abortion battle to state courts and legislatures.
The Red River Women's Clinic — the formerly sole abortion clinic in North Dakota — and several physicians challenged the law. The state appealed the 2024 ruling that overturned the ban.
The judge and the Supreme Court each denied requests by the state to keep the abortion ban in effect during the appeal. Those decisions allowed patients with pregnancy complications to seek care without fear of delay because of the law, Center for Reproductive Rights Staff Attorney Meetra Mehdizadeh previously said.
