Abortions are prohibited in North Dakota from conception, with a few exceptions.
A new strict abortion law has entered into force in the US state of North Dakota. Republican governor of a Midwestern state Doug Burgum confirmed the law local time on Monday.
According to the law, almost all abortions are prohibited from conception, with a few exceptions. Abortion is permitted, for example, if the pregnancy poses a serious danger to the pregnant woman. Exceptions are also pregnancies caused by rape or incest, but only up to the sixth week of pregnancy. At such an early stage, many still do not know they are pregnant.
According to Burgum, the new law that will take effect immediately confirms that North Dakota is a so-called pro-life state. The term pro-life refers to a movement emphasizing the rights of the unborn child. The term is used when talking about opponents of abortion and in opposition to the pro-choice movement that defends the right to abortion and a woman’s right to self-determination regarding her own body.
It is one of the strictest abortion bans that has come into force in the United States since last summer. North Dakota is a conservative majority state with a population of about 800,000.
Last summer, the US Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision from 1973, which protected the right to abortion at the federal level. Since then, a dozen states have severely restricted abortions.
At the federal level, the abortion drug is being debated
Just two weeks ago, the state of Florida sent a new abortion law to the Republican governor by Ron DeSantis to be signed. The law would ban almost all abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy.
The law has not yet gone into effect, as the state Supreme Court is reviewing the matter. The White House has condemned the law as “extreme and dangerous”.
Recently, there has also been a controversy in the United States about a commonly used abortion drug. Earlier this month, a federal judge in the state of Texas revoked the federal license for the abortion drug mifepristone.
Mifepristone is used in more than half of medical abortions in the United States as part of a two-drug regimen. The Federal Food and Drug Administration FDA granted the drug a marketing authorization in 2000.
On Friday, the US Supreme Court decided to secure the availability of the drug in the country for the time being. The decision is temporary, and the legality of the drug can still change with an appeal.
The dispute over the drug has been the most significant abortion rights Supreme Court case in the United States since the court overturned the constitutional right to abortion less than a year ago.
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