BISMARCK, N.D. — Lawyers representing North Dakota have petitioned the state Supreme Court to maintain the previously overturned abortion ban while the state appeals a judge’s September decision that deemed the law unconstitutional.

In early October, District Judge Bruce Romanick rejected the state’s appeal for a stay, explaining, “The Court has found the law unconstitutional under the state constitution. It would be non-sensical for this Court to keep a law it has found to be unconstitutional in effect pending appeal.”

In a recent motion, the state urged the Supreme Court to allow the ban to stay in place during the appeal process, arguing that “this case presents serious, difficult, and unresolved constitutional questions that are of profound importance to the people of this State.” They also cited the importance of maintaining the current legal status.

North Dakota once had a single abortion clinic, but it currently has none following significant legal changes. The Red River Women’s Clinic originally initiated a lawsuit against the state’s former abortion ban in 2022. That clinic relocated from Fargo to Moorhead, Minnesota, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Roe v. Wade the same year.

In response to the Dobbs ruling, North Dakota’s Republican-dominated Legislature updated the state’s abortion regulations in 2023. The new ban, effective from April 2023, categorizes the procedure as a felony, with exceptions only for saving the mother’s life or addressing serious health threats, alongside allowances for cases of rape or incest—but only within the first six weeks of pregnancy.