The “fetal heartbeat” law – a North Dakota ban on many abortions that was the toughest in the nation when it was enacted – has been blocked permanently, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a lower court’s ruling that overturned the law.
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On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear the state’s appeal, just a week after rejecting Arkansas’s appeal of their similar strict anti-abortion law. The law never actually went into effect, since the state’s only abortion clinic immediately filed suit after the Republican-controlled state legislature passed the law in 2013.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court’s website said certiorari, a review of a lower court’s decision, was denied.
North Dakota lawmakers set aside $400,000 to defend lawsuits arising from a spate of new abortion laws in 2013, and the Legislature added another $400,000 past year.
Rep. Charles Van Zant, R-Keystone Heights, is proposing to make performing an abortion or operating an abortion clinic a first-degree felony in Florida, punishable by up to 30 years in prison. The nearest other abortion clinics are four hours south to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and four hours away in Minneapolis.
“Since this Court first recognized constitutional protection for pre-viability abortion, two generations of American women have come of age, depending on constitutional protection for their dignity in making reproductive decisions”, the abortion rights group said. The Supreme Court last week decided not to hear the state’s appeal. Supporters of the North Dakota abortion law noted the heated disputer over fetus viability in the SCOTUS Stenehjem v. MKB Management arguments.
“The decision is not surprising”, according to a news release from LifeNews.com, “given the high court still has a pro-abortion majority that support Roe v. Wade, which allows virtually unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy and essentially prevents states from protecting most unborn children”.
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That term, however, has been deeply disputed as a growing number of states create bans on abortions after certain timelines. After the law was passed, 19 of 42 clinics opted to close instead of revamping to meet new safety standards.
