North Dakota House Rejects Abortion, Reproductive Rights Bills

On Wednesday, the North Dakota House decisively voted against four bills concerning abortion and reproductive rights, one of which was a contentious personhood bill that could have led to women facing murder charges for seeking an abortion. 

House Bill 1373, introduced by Rep. Lori VanWinkle, R-Minot, aimed to redefine a human being to encompass an unborn child within state laws related to murder, assault, and wrongful death lawsuits. The bill was rejected with a vote of 77-16, as critics cautioned that it might limit in vitro fertilization (IVF), create challenges in medical care for pregnancy complications, and result in expensive legal disputes. VanWinkle supported the bill, contending that abortion contributes to North Dakota’s workforce shortage and citing religious reasons, stating, “Perhaps women are going to the IVF clinics because judgment is on their womb.”

A separate bill, House Bill 1488, which aimed to allow abortion for any reason up to 15 weeks of pregnancy, also did not pass, receiving an 87-6 vote against it. Rep. Eric Murphy, R-Grand Forks, the bill's sponsor, referenced polling that shows a majority of North Dakotans are against the state's near-total abortion ban, enacted in 2023. A district court judge deemed that law unconstitutional last fall; it prohibits almost all abortions, allowing exceptions only in cases of rape and incest within the first six weeks or when a woman's life is endangered. The state has filed an appeal regarding the ruling to the North Dakota Supreme Court.

Murphy, a professor at a medical school, stated that he proposed the bill to offer doctors more explicit guidelines, emphasizing that stringent abortion bans across the country have restricted physicians' capacity to care for their patients. His proposal would have mandated a review by a medical panel for abortions performed after 15 weeks, except for emergencies. Despite considerable resistance, the pro-IVF bill received the highest backing among the four proposals yet failed in passing.