Recognized and Protected

Abortion rights advocates have their work cut out for them in North Dakota. According to Nancy Northrup, president and chief executive officer of the New-York-based group, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the new restrictive abortion law brought into place in the state makes it "now home to the most extreme restrictions on women's constitutionally protected reproductive rights in the nation."

The law, as it written, now makes no exception for rape or incest victims. A foetus at six weeks or over is smaller than a dime; at six weeks of pregnancy most women haven't yet realized that they are pregnant Yet the new law bans abortions as a felony charge once a fetal heartbeat can be detected. And that can be at six weeks' gestation.

A second bill brought into law at the same time makes North Dakota the first in the union to bar terminations as a result of genetic abnormalities. Another signed bill requiring doctors working at the state's single operating abortion clinic to have admitting privileges at a local hospital may result finally in the closing of that sole abortion clinic, cutting off all access to abortions to any woman at any stage of pregnancy.

The time limit involved in terminating a pregnancy will come hard up against the 1973 Supreme Court decision giving women the right to terminate a pregnancy until such time as a foetus reaches viability. And that time would be roughly 24 weeks. There is a vast disparity between six weeks' gestation and 24 weeks.

"Although the likelihood of this measure surviving a court challenge remains in question, this bill is nevertheless a legitimate attempt by a state legislature to discover the boundaries of Roe v.Wade", stated North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple, calling upon his fellow legislators to make preparations for a long and costly court battle.

The most reprehensible portion of this abortion agenda on the part of this state legislature is that there are no exceptions. Women pregnant as a result of rape or incest will be victimized, denied the opportunity for termination of such a repugnant pregnancy.  And in 2014 the opportunity will arise for voters in the state to decide whether they wish to have their constitution amended by a personhood measure.

Such a measure would ensure definitively that abortion would be outlawed entirely in the state. The proposed amendment already initially approved by lawmakers claims "the inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be recognized and protected".