North Dakota signs law banning all abortions after six weeks – including in rape and incest cases

North Dakota has adopted one of the nation’s strictest anti-abortion laws — with Republican Gov. Doug Burgum signing a law banning nearly all the procedures.

The minor exception is if the abortion was performed in the first six weeks of pregnancy. In those early weeks, abortions would only be permitted in cases of rape, incest, or a medical emergency, such as an ectopic pregnancy.

Most women do not realize they are pregnant before six weeks. Until now, procedures in the state were previously legal up to 22 weeks of gestation.

“This bill clarifies and revises existing state law … and reaffirms North Dakota as a pro-life state,” Burgum said in a statement.

Last year’s US Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade’s 1973 decision to legalize abortion nationwide has set in motion several state laws banning or restricting the procedure.

He faced many legal challenges. Currently, abortion bans at all stages of pregnancy are in place in at least 13 states and suspended in others due to court orders.

On the flip side, Democratic governors in at least 20 states this year launched a network aimed at promoting access to abortion in the wake of a US Supreme Court decision that revoked a woman’s constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy and shifted regulatory powers over the procedure to state governments.

North Dakota’s law was designed to take effect immediately, but last month the state Supreme Court ruled that the former ban would remain prohibited while a lawsuit over its constitutionality began.

Last week, lawmakers said they intended to pass the latest bill as a letter to the state Supreme Court indicating that North Dakotans want to restrict abortion.

Supporters said the measure signed Monday protects all human lives, while opponents say it will have dire consequences for women and girls.

North Dakota no longer has any abortion clinics. Last summer, the state’s only facility, the Red River Women’s Clinic, closed its doors in Fargo and moved operations a short distance across the border to Morehead, Minnesota, where abortion is still legal.

The clinic owner is still suing to challenge the constitutionality of North Dakota’s previous abortion ban.

This new ban is also expected to be the subject of legal challenges.

Republican Sen. Jan Myrdal, R-Edinburg, sponsored recent state legislation.

“North Dakota has always been pro-life and believes in valuing mothers and children alike,” Myrdal said in an interview. “We are happy and grateful that the governor stands by this value.”

Democratic Representative Liz Konmi voted against the bill and said she hoped Burgum would not sign it.

“I don’t think women in North Dakota will accept this, and there will be a movement in the future to take back our rights,” Konmi said. “Our legislatures are overwhelmingly pro-pregnancy, but I think women in the state want to make their own decisions.”

This comes just days after it was ruled that doctors in North Dakota who perform sex reassignment surgeries on children will face up to 10 years in prison.

Doug Burgum signed a bill into law that restricts health care for transgender people in the state, immediately making it a gender-affirming crime for people under the age of 18.

Gender affirmation care for minors has been available in the United States for more than a decade and is endorsed by major medical societies, but has increasingly come under attack in many conservative legislatures.

America is a country out of the world when it comes to medical interventions for children. Both the UK and Scandinavia are stopping medicines for minors until doctors know more about the medicines, and the long-term risks of making irreversible changes to children’s bodies.

Under the new law, doctors face up to 10 years in prison and $20,000 fines for performing sex reassignment surgery on a minor, up to a year in jail, and a $3,000 fine for giving gender-affirming medication, such as puberty blockers, to transgender people. child.

The measure Burgum signed on Wednesday garnered anti-veto support from Republican lawmakers — though some Republicans voted against it, along with all Democrats.