State District Judge Bruce Romanick recently made a ruling declaring North Dakota’s near-total ban on abortion to be unconstitutional. The ban, which went into effect in April 2023, was found to violate the state constitution by being too vague and infringing on a woman’s fundamental right to procreative autonomy. Romanick’s decision was based on the North Dakota Constitution, which he argued provides pregnant women with a fundamental right to choose abortion before a fetus is viable. The judge cited the state constitution’s guarantees of “inalienable rights,” including “life and liberty,” as the basis for his ruling.
Romanick’s ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed in 2022 by the Red River Women’s Clinic, which was at the time North Dakota’s sole abortion provider. The clinic challenged the ban on the grounds that it violated the state constitution. The state argued for the dismissal of the lawsuit, but Romanick determined that the law was too vague and did not meet the standard of narrowly tailoring to promote women’s health or protect unborn human life. He also noted that previous North Dakota court decisions on abortion had been “upended” by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, leaving him with uncertainty on how the state Supreme Court would address the issue.
In his 24-page order, Romanick highlighted the importance of protecting the fundamental rights of North Dakota residents while applying the law as written to the issue of abortion. He made reference to a similar ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2019, which also declared access to abortion a fundamental right under the state’s constitution. North Dakota’s law prohibits abortion in all cases except for rape or incest within the first six weeks of pregnancy, or if necessary to prevent the death or serious health risk to the woman. The judge concluded that the law’s lack of clear standards for determining exceptions could result in doctors being prosecuted based on differing opinions.
The Red River Women’s Clinic, along with several doctors, filed an amended complaint after North Dakota’s Republican-controlled Legislature revised the state’s abortion laws in 2023. The revised law allowed for abortion in cases of rape or incest within the first six weeks of pregnancy, and later in pregnancy only in specific medical emergencies. The plaintiffs argued that the law was unconstitutionally vague about its exceptions for doctors and that its health exception was too narrow. Romanick’s ruling ultimately declared the near-total ban on abortion in North Dakota to be unconstitutional, citing the state constitution’s protection of inalienable rights as the basis for his decision.
The impact of Romanick’s ruling is significant for reproductive rights in North Dakota, as it effectively invalidates the state’s near-total ban on abortion. The decision provides pregnant women in the state with the fundamental right to choose abortion before viability, as guaranteed by the North Dakota Constitution. By striking down the ban, Romanick’s ruling reinforces the importance of protecting women’s reproductive autonomy and ensuring access to safe and legal abortion services. The ruling also highlights the challenges and uncertainties surrounding abortion laws in states following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the implications for state-level decisions on reproductive rights.
