Not to be outdone by the Arkansas legislature, which overrode Governor’s Mike Beebe’s veto of a bill banning abortion after 12 weeks, the North Dakota legislature has passed what is now the most restrictive abortion law in the country.
Breathe easy, Kansas, Arizona, Arkansas, and South Dakota! North Dakota has got this.
HB 1456 bans abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which happens six or seven weeks into the pregnancy, two weeks after a woman misses her period, and about 28 days post-conception. That’s a ridiculously narrow window. The bill provides an exception for health of the mother, but no exception for rape.
Robin Marty writing for RH Reality Check points out that this law screws North Dakotan women, and not in a good way:
For any woman, trying to verify a pregnancy, set up an appointment, and jump through any of the hoops necessary to obtain an abortion in less than two weeks after a missed period would be a hardship. But for the women of North Dakota, where the sole clinic offering abortions is on the east end of the state, straddling the Minnesota border, it would be virtually impossible. And that’s just what politicians are hoping for.
The 2013 war on women marches inexorably onward.
[via RH Reality Check; and again here]