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OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
2:08 PM – Saturday, November 22, 2025
The North Dakota Supreme Court has reinstated the state’s abortion ban, overturning a previous ruling from a judge finding it unconstitutional.
The new decision makes it a felony crime to perform an abortion, with abortion providers facing as many as five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Patients are protected from prosecution, however.
North Dakota initially moved to ban abortion after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade. This prompted the state’s one abortion provider, Red River Women’s Clinic, to move from Fargo to Moorhead, Minnesota.
The state passed a near-total ban in 2023, before it was struck down by State District Judge Bruce Romanick, ruling that it was unconstitutionally vague.
According to the North Dakota Constitution, at least four of the five justices to agree for a law to be deemed unconstitutional. Three justices believed that the law was vague on whether it was constitutional. The other two said that the law is not unconstitutional.
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Justice Jerod Tufte wrote in his opinion that the natural rights granted by the state constitution do not extend to abortion, and that the law “provides adequate and fair warning to those attempting to comply.”
Those who opposed the higher court’s decision ironically called it “a devastating loss for pregnant North Dakotans.”
“As a majority of the Court found, this cruel and confusing ban is incomprehensible to physicians. The ban forces doctors to choose between providing care and going to prison,” Center for Reproductive Rights senior staff attorney Meetra Mehdizadeh said. “Abortion is healthcare, and North Dakotans deserve to be able to access this care without delay caused by confusion about what the law allows.”
Republicans praised the decision, however.
“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,” said North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley, a Republican.
Republican state Senator Janne Myrdal, who introduced the 2023 legislation that banned abortion, said that she was “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.”
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