Judges blocked North Dakota abortion bans for now

Judges blocked North Dakota abortion bans for now. 

Judges in Wyoming and North Dakota temporarily stopped abortion restrictions scheduled to go into effect this week amid lawsuits alleging that the bans violate the state constitutions of those two states.

While a North Dakota court ruled with the state’s only abortion clinic, Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo, a Wyoming judge sided with a women’s health clinic that had been firebombed and others who claimed the ban would hurt medical professionals and their patients.

On Wednesday, the Wyoming prohibition was supposed to go into force. On Thursday, the North Dakota legislation was scheduled to go into force.

In the meanwhile, a prohibition was passed by West Virginia legislators despite opposition from several speakers and protestors.

Screams and yells from demonstrators outside the chamber echoed throughout the House of Delegates in West Virginia throughout the hours of discussion that preceded the 69-23 vote, which Republicans controlled.

According to the most recent legal proceedings, North Dakota and Wyoming have joined the list of states, along with Kentucky, Louisiana, and Utah, where courts have temporarily prohibited the adoption of “trigger legislation” while litigation are pending.

The Wyoming abortion “trigger” legislation went into effect on Wednesday. Still, lawyers appearing before Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens in Jackson, Wyoming, differed on whether the state constitution guaranteed a right to the procedure.

However, Owens gained the greatest support with his claims that the restriction put pregnant women at risk for catastrophic consequences and their physicians in a precarious situation as they had to weigh grave medical risks against the prospect of being charged with a crime.

“The plaintiffs may have suffered an irreparable loss as a result. They are left without any direction “stated Owens.

Recently, some states, including Wyoming, established “trigger” abortion prohibitions in case the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24. On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court finally handed down its decision.