Judge keeps North Dakota abortion ban from taking effect

By JAMES MacPHERSON and DAVE KOLPACK
Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota judge says he’ll keep the state’s ban on abortion from taking effect because there’s a “substantial probability” that a constitutional challenge to the law will succeed in court. Judge Bruce Romanick’s Monday ruling means abortion is still legal in North Dakota. However, Romanick said the question of whether abortion is a constitutional right in the state has not been decided. The state’s only clinic — the Red River Women’s Clinic of Fargo — closed as it challenged the ban and has moved across the the border to neighboring Minnesota.