11.21.2025 (PRESS RELEASE) – Today, the North Dakota Supreme Court reversed a decision from a lower court and allowed the state’s abortion ban to go back into effect. Abortion has been legal in North Dakota since district court Judge Bruce Romanick ruled the ban unconstitutional in September 2024. While three out of the five Justices found the law unconstitutionally vague, North Dakota requires a majority of at least four judges to declare a law unconstitutional. Justice Jerod E. Tufte and Chief Justice Jon J. Jensen voted to uphold the ban.

“This decision is a devastating loss for pregnant North Dakotans,” said Meetra Mehdizadeh, senior attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “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. Abortion is health care, and North Dakotans deserve to be able to access this care without delay caused by confusion about what the law allows.”

In the lawsuit, Plaintiffs argued that the North Dakota ban was unconstitutionally vague and made it impossible for doctors in the state to interpret the confusing language about when medical exceptions were allowed. The ban’s limited and confusing exceptions fail to offer clarity on when, or whether a patient is “sick enough” to qualify for abortion care. Physicians who provide abortions are at risk of harsh penalties if someone were to question the provider’s judgment. Violating the ban is considered a class C felony, punishable by a maximum of five years of imprisonment, a fine of $10,000, or both.

“At our clinic in Minnesota, most of the patients we see are from North Dakota,” said Tammi Kromenaker, executive director of Red River Women’s Clinic. “We know people will always need and seek this care, and making it illegal just makes it harder — and in some cases, less safe — to get. We will keep fighting for the freedom and dignity of North Dakotans.”

“Today’s decision is a shameful setback for the people of North Dakota,” said Dr. Ana Tobiasz, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and a plaintiff in the case. “The Court has allowed a dangerous and unclear law to come back into effect; one that puts patients’ lives at risk and forces providers to practice in fear. We challenged this ban because no one should have to wait until they’re near death to get the care they need. North Dakotans deserve compassion and autonomy, not cruelty disguised as law.”

Seventeen states currently ban abortion completely or after six weeks of pregnancy—before many know they are pregnant. While most of those bans have very narrow exceptions to save the life of the pregnant patient, those exceptions have not been working in practice. Doctors are unclear who qualifies for the exceptions, and they are terrified to perform any abortions as they face years in prison for violating the bans. In addition to North Dakota, the Center has an active lawsuit in Tennessee to clarify the “medical emergency” exceptions written into Tennessee’s ban, and to broaden the circumstances in which providers can provide abortions.

The lawsuit in North Dakota was filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, Sambor Law & Consulting, and Gender Justice, on behalf of Red River Women’s Clinic, its medical director Dr. Kathryn Eggleston, Dr. Ana Tobiasz, Dr. Erica Hofland, and Dr. Collette Lessard.

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