Abortion

Judge Blocks Telemed Abortion Ban

The North Dakota ban on telemed abortions receives a temporary restraining order.

A judge in North Dakota has put a temporary restraining order on a statewide ban on telemedicine (telemed) abortions.

Via Center for Reproductive Rights:

Today, a state judge issued a temporary restraining order against a North Dakota law that effectively bans the use of medication abortion in the state by imposing new and unnecessary restrictions. Medication abortion is a safe and common use of FDA-approved drugs to induce first-trimester abortions.

Judge Wickham Corwin’s order will block enforcement of the law until a hearing—scheduled for August 29 at 10:00 a.m., CST.

“We are extremely pleased that, for the time being, women in North Dakota will still have access to an alternative to surgical abortion that has been widely recognized as safe and effective by medical experts and organizations around the world,” said Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed suit against the law on Monday, July 18. “This law has nothing to do with protecting women’s health—it defies reason, science and medical expertise in a clandestine attempt to limit women’s access to abortion.”

The judge determined that the Center raised “serious questions” in its pleadings, and that “the public is best served if these questions are considered before the challenged provisions are enforced.

The state has only one abortion clinic, and forcing all women to go to the one clinic in the state in order to access the abortion pill would render getting an abortion virtually impossible for many low income women in rural areas.