North Dakota Chief Justice
John J. Jensen
In Wrigley v. Romanick the North Dakota Supreme Court held that There is a fundamental right for a woman to obtain an abortion in instances where it is necessary to preserve her life or health..
Access Independent Health Services, Inc., d/b/a Red River Women’s Clinic has a substantial likelihood of succeeding in establishing N.D.C.C. § 12.1-31-12 is not narrowly tailored to the State’s compelling interests.
Chief Justice John J. Jensen wrote:
The North Dakota Constitution guarantees the “inalienable right[ ] ... of enjoying and defending life and liberty.” N.D. Const. art. I, § 1. Commonly, an individual exercises this right of self-defense by responding to a threat of imminent serious bodily injury or death with physical force. City of Jamestown v. Kastet, 2022 ND 40, ¶ 17, 970 N.W.2d 187; State v. Olander, 1998 ND 50, ¶ 20, 575 N.W.2d 658. Where a pregnancy raises a similar threat of serious bodily injury or death, the pregnant woman has a fundamental right to preserve her life and health with the aid of a physician.
Our recognition of this fundamental right to preserve one’s life does not depend on resolving the disputed point of pregnancy at which there are two lives that must be considered. The State has a compelling interest in protecting unborn human life, which RRWC does not dispute. Majority, at ¶ 29. We have long understood 20 that a woman has an inalienable right to employ deadly force against another person when necessary to protect herself against death or serious bodily injury. State v. Leidholm, 334 N.W.2d 811, 820 (N.D. 1983); United States v. Leighton, 3 Dakota 29, 13 N.W. 347, 348 (1882). Likewise, the State’s compelling interest on behalf of an unborn child must yield to the pregnant woman’s right to abort a pregnancy when necessary to preserve her life or health.
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