North Dakota judge blocks abortion ban trigger law while legal challenges continue

A North Dakota judge continued a pause on a state trigger law that would have outlawed abortion in the state. 

Extending a temporary restraining order that blocked the state abortion ban from going into effect on July 28, South Central Judicial District Judge Bruce Romanick granted a preliminary injunction on Thursday, ensuring abortion access would continue until a trial challenging the law was completed. 

“The purpose of preliminary injunctions is to maintain the status quo during the pendency of the litigation and prevent harm,” Romanick wrote. “At this time, the status quo in North Dakota is not to restrict or limit abortions.”

Romanick leaned heavily on the fact that at a hearing earlier this month, neither party in the lawsuit presented any evidence to the court. Instead, both sides presented arguments for Romanick to consider — leaving the judge without any facts to adjudicate. 

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The judge was not persuaded by the abortion activists’ arguments that the state should block the law in question as it would lead to patients suffering “because they may face irreversible and potentially devastating health consequences.” 

The activists backed up their position with a declaration from Red River Women’s Clinic, one of the parties in the suit, that the state needed to block the law because North Dakota couldn’t rely on neighboring states’ abortion clinics to safeguard its “citizens’ constitutional rights.” 

Abortion rights protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court’s landmark abortion cases. 
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

However, Romanick pointed to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision earlier this year that “made it clear the United States Constitution does not include a right to an abortion.” 

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While Romanick wasn’t convinced by the anti-abortion plaintiffs’ arguments on the merits of providing the procedure itself, he said he had little choice other than to maintain the status quo in…