North Dakota Abortion Ban for Sex Selection and Genetic Abnormalities (HB 1305)

HB 1305 prohibits a person from intentionally performing or attempting to perform an abortion with the knowledge that the pregnant woman is seeking the abortion solely due to the sex of the fetus or because the fetus has been diagnosed with a genetic abnormality or a potential for a genetic abnormality.

The bill defines “genetic abnormality” to mean “any defect, disease, or disorder that is inherited genetically. The term includes any physical disfigurement, scoliosis, dwarfism, Down syndrome, albinism, amelia, or any other type of physical or mental disability, abnormality, or disease.”

Any physician who performs an abortion in violation of this provision commits a Class A misdemeanor.

Sex-selection abortions are not a widespread problem in the United States. However, anti-choice activists cite three studies documenting the use of sex-selection abortion primarily among a small number of immigrant women. The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum notes that a ban similar to this ban “targets and thus limits reproductive health access for Asian American & Pacific Islander women, who anti-choicers say are the ones guilty of this abortion practice. We know the real solution to ending the preference for sons in some families is getting to the root of the problem: gender inequity. If lawmakers truly want to help us, we call on them to promote equal pay, access to education, health equity, and ending violence against women.”

STATUS

Signed into law by Gov. Dalrymple on March 26, 2013.

People

Legal Cases

• MKB Management, Corp. v. Burdick II