BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – North Dakota’s Republican-led House endorsed legislation Thursday that would prevent a doctor from using instruments like clamps, scissors and forceps to remove a fetus from the womb.
Representatives voted to outlaw the abortion practice known as dilation and evacuation, the most commonly used procedure in second-trimester abortions. The bill uses the non-medical term “dismemberment abortion” and is graphic in describing it.
Except in cases of an emergency, doctors performing the procedure would be charged with a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The measure says a woman having the abortion would not face charges.
Abortion-rights groups argue that banning the procedure is unconstitutional because it interferes with private medical decisions.
Laws banning the procedure are on the books in Mississippi and West Virginia, while Ohio’s new law will take effect in March, according to the New York-based Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights research organization. Similar laws are on hold because of legal challenges in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.