Bismarck, North Dakota – On Tuesday, the limited use of drugs for abortion, a state law was supported by the North Dakota Supreme Court. The move, according to abortion-rights supporters said will totally eradicate the use of such medications eventually.
The 103-page ruling of the state’s high courts reversed the previous year’s ruling by a district attorney, which found that the 2011 law violated the state constitution.
A Center for Reproductive Rights attorney David Brown said no more medication abortions in the state beginning Wednesday. The center’s office in Fargo has been helping the state’s sole abortion clinic with legal challenges, serving as an urgent care near me facility when it comes to legalities.
Four justices should reach a decision to find a state law unconstitutional out of the five-member state high courts. Two of them, Justice Dale Sandstrom and Chief Justice Gerald VandeWalle found the law constitutional, found within the limits of the state and the United Sates Constitutions.
Based on the ruling, the separate opinions about the law were not declared unlawful by the sufficient majority. Brown said the limited use of drugs for abortion might be elevated towards the federal court as he was mulling over the separate opinions.
Meanwhile, Wayne Stenehjem, ND Attorney General applauded the ruling. He said the state will wait for the urgent care clinic’s and its attorney’s actions, if any.
The Red River Women’s Clinic medication abortions involve a mixture of two drugs, namely the misoprostol and mifepristone. The marketing of the latter medication was approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration. Mifepristone, also known as RU-486 is used in ending pregnancies, while the other drug is used as urgent care and cure for stomach ulcers, thus, not categorized as an abortion-inducing medication.
There are several urgent care clinics and abortion-rights supporters in the state, who do not totally agree with the limited use of drugs for abortion because their rights are violated as they believe.
However, the state law upholds that the use of any medication to perform an abortion procedure should still meet the protocols authorized a tested by the FDA, which is the same agency that outlined the drug’s labels. Therefore, Misoprostol violates the state law and is prohibited.
Tammi Kromenaker, director of Red River Clinic pointed out that nearly 20% of the total 1,300 abortion procedures it performs yearly are accomplished with medications, and not through surgical procedures.
The clinic attorneys also said the abortion drugs used by their facility are widely recognized by the entire medical community. Debate on the limited use of drugs for abortion is still ongoing, and a final ruling is yet to be implemented.
