The state’s high court, in a 103-page ruling, reversed a ruling by a district judge last year that found the 2011 law violates the state constitution.
There was not a sufficient majority of justices in agreement to declare the law unconstitutional.
Attorneys for the Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo, North Dakota’s only abortion clinic, had argued that the law was effectively a ban on medication abortions, an alternative to surgical abortion that is chosen by about 20 percent of the clinic’s patients.
They now have 14 days to petition the Supreme Court for a rehearing before the law takes effect. David Brown, an attorney with the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which represented the clinic, said he was still digesting the 103-page opinion and couldn’t say yet whether a petition will be filed.
