ND House: Allow abortion only to save woman's life
BISMARCK, N.D. - North Dakota should allow abortions only to save a woman's life and prosecute others as felonies, the state House decided in endorsing a law that would take effect only if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses itself on abortion rights.
House members voted on four abortion measures Friday and rejected three, including a bill that sought to treat abortions as murder unless they were done to save a woman's life.
Representatives also turned down bills to restrict the abortion of any fetus in a multiple pregnancy, and to ban use of taxpayer funds for prenatal genetic testing unless the information was being gathered to provide medical treatment.
The approved House bill declares that an abortion, except when performed to save the woman's life, is a felony, punishable by five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
It gives the parents of a pregnant girl younger than 18 and the father of an unborn child the right to sue to stop an abortion. The legislation now goes to the North Dakota Senate for additional review.
The bill avoids the confrontational approach taken by South Dakota lawmakers last year. The South Dakota Legislature made it a felony crime to perform an abortion except to save the woman's life, with the intent of defending the measure in federal court.
Opponents of the South Dakota bill filed referendum petitions and voters rejected the law last November.
Rep. Kim Koppelman, R-West Fargo, said many abortion opponents disliked the idea of approving abortion restrictions with the condition that they took effect only if the Supreme Court gave states much greater authority to regulate abortion.
“We are charged by our state constitution and elected by our people to put public policy in place for the state of North Dakota. The bill ... does just that, but it also recognizes reality,” Koppelman said. “It says, when and if the day comes that the Supreme Court hands down rulings that would allow this bill to become active, that will happen.”
Tim Stanley, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood, said after Friday's vote that the legislation put “the politics and ideology of today above the health and safety of women tomorrow.”
The abortion bill, Stanley said, is “an extreme measure that is more restrictive than the abortion law defeated by the people of South Dakota.”
Rep. Dan Ruby, R-Minot, said he would have preferred that the bill did not include the Supreme Court condition.
Ruby himself sponsored a bill to declare abortion as murder, punishable by life in prison without parole, unless the procedure was done to save the woman's life. It was defeated, 69-20.
We have a trigger bill,” Ruby said, referring to the approved measure, which was sponsored by Rep. Jim Kerzman, D-Mott. “However, that one doesn't challenge the court, and that is what I believe we needed to do.”
House floor debate on the four measures was short and relatively muted, except for a rhetorical outburst by Rep. Darrell Nottestad, R-Grand Forks, who said Ruby's bill deserved to be overwhelmingly defeated.
“As a loving husband, a father of two daughters, it's time that someone stands up to speak against these anti-female bills,” Nottestad said. “I ask you to give this bill a resounding (no) vote, to send a message that this type of thing will not be accepted.”