Vol. 78/No. 13      April 7, 2014

In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Susan Wright wrote that the law “impermissibly infringes a woman’s Fourteenth Amendment right to elect to terminate a pregnancy before viability.” The court, however, upheld the provision requiring a woman seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound and be informed in writing if a heartbeat was detected.

The Center for Reproductive Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit against the law in April 2013. The following month Judge Wright issued a temporary injunction against implementing the 12-week ban, a ruling that has now become permanent.

Supporters of abortion rights in North Dakota won a victory in their fight to keep the Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo open, the only abortion clinic in the state. A 2013 law mandated doctors who perform abortions to obtain admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic, a requirement very difficult to meet for the three out-of-state doctors who perform abortions there.

Last month, Sanford Health, a Fargo and Sioux Falls, S.D.-based health system, provided the physicians at Red River Women’s Clinic with the required credential.

“While this settlement is good, we still need to overturn the law as it sets a precedent for anti-choice forces to keep pressing legislation in other states,” said Jen Hoy of Stand Up for Women North Dakota, in a phone interview from Fargo March 16.

The North Dakota law bans abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected, which through use of an intrusive vaginal ultrasound can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. A federal judge has temporarily blocked this provision pending outcome of a legal challenge.

“The North Dakota law is unconstitutional,” said Hoy. While the heartbeat issue is being fought out, “there is already a 20-week ban in effect here, less than federal guidelines provide.”

In Texas, a law requiring admission privileges at nearby hospitals for doctors performing abortions at clinics has led to the closure of a number of clinics in working-class areas. Two more were closed March 6 — in McAllen, the last one in the Rio Grande Valley; and in Beaumont, the only site performing abortions between Houston and the Louisiana border.

In 2011, before these restrictions were passed by the state legislature, 44 clinics performed abortions in Texas; the number has now dropped to 24. It is expected to further decrease to six by September, when an additional regulation takes effect requiring clinics to perform abortions in “hospital-style operating rooms,” reported the New York Times.  
 
 
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