North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley appealed a state judge’s order Monday blocking the state from protecting unborn babies from abortion.
In a brief to the state Supreme Court, Wrigley challenged the order and asked to be allowed to enforce the 2007 state abortion ban, The AP reports.
The law was supposed to go into effect this summer after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, but the only abortion facility in North Dakota, the Red River Women’s Clinic, sued the state. Interestingly, the abortion facility recently moved from Fargo across the border to Moorhead, Minnesota; but it still is challenging the ban.
In August, South Central District Judge Bruce Romanick issued a temporary order blocking law, which prohibits the killing of unborn babies in abortions except in cases of rape, incest and risks to the mother’s life.
In his appeal Monday, Wrigley said the judge’s order was wrong because it asserted that the state Constitution is “clear and obvious” about allowing abortions, according to the report. The attorney general said there is no constitutional right to abortion.
“Such leaps in analysis do not appear to be the product of a rational mental process leading to a reasoned determination. The district court’s determination on this issue is diminished and unsupported by its own analysis and admission that the ‘answer to whether the Statute is constitutional is not obvious,’” Wrigley wrote.
However, attorneys for the abortion facility argued that the law is burdensome because abortionists who abort unborn babies in cases of rape, incest or threats to the mother’s life still could be charged and would have to defend their actions in court, according to the report.
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Arguments in the appeal are scheduled for next week in front of the North Dakota Supreme Court.
Approximately 1,100 unborn babies are aborted in North Dakota every year. It is not clear if the Red River abortion facility plans to move back if its lawsuit succeeds.
North Dakota is one of nine states that are battling in court to legally protect unborn babies from abortion. Currently, 13 other states are enforcing pro-life laws that ban or strictly limit abortions, saving more than 100,000 unborn babies’ lives, according to SBA Pro-Life America.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a historic victory for life and returned the power to legislate abortion to the people. Because of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, states may protect unborn babies from abortion for the first time in nearly 50 years. New research estimates state pro-life laws have saved as many as 10,000 unborn babies’ lives since June.
All pro-life laws allow abortions when the mother’s life is at risk and, in some states, cases of rape and incest. These make up a very small percent of all abortions in the U.S. Research from the Charlotte Lozier Institute found about 96 percent of abortions are for purely elective reasons.
