2023-12-23 04:04:47
DECEMBER 22, 2023:
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota judge said Wednesday (Dec. 20, 2023) he will decide soon whether to temporarily block a part of the state’s revised abortion laws so doctors can perform the procedure to save a patient’s life or health.
The request for a preliminary injunction asks state District Court Judge Bruce Romanick to bar the state from enforcing the law against physicians who use their “good-faith medical judgment” to perform an abortion because of pregnancy complications that could pose “a risk of infection, hemorrhage, high blood pressure, or which otherwise makes continuing a pregnancy unsafe.”
North Dakota outlaws all abortions, except in cases where women could face death or a “serious health risk.” People who perform abortions could be charged with a felony under the law, but patients would not.
Physicians, to mitigate risk of prosecution, “feel like they must delay offering abortions to their patients until the patients’ health has declined to the point where other physicians could not plausibly disagree that it was necessary to provide an abortion,” Center for Reproductive Rights attorney Meetra Mehdizadeh said.
“Patients and physicians have experienced significant harm,” she said. “For patients, the denial of their constitutional rights and forced additional health risks; and for physicians, the harm of having the threat of criminal prosecution hanging over their head every time they treat a patient with a medical complication.”
The state’s revised abortion laws also provide an exception for pregnancies caused by rape and incest, but only in the first six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant. It also allows for treatment of ectopic and molar pregnancies, which are nonviable situations.
Special Assistant Attorney General Dan Gaustad cited the plaintiffs’ “seven-month delay” in seeking a preliminary injunction, and he disputed the “good-faith medical judgment” language. He told the judge the plaintiffs are asking him “to modify and rewrite the statute under the guise of a preliminary injunction.” The law uses ”reasonable medical judgment.”
The Red River Women’s Clinic sued the state last year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned the court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling establishing a nationwide right to abortion. The lawsuit targeted the state’s since-repealed trigger ban — a ban designed to go into effect immediately if the court overturned Roe v. Wade — as unconstitutional. The clinic moved from Fargo to neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, where abortion is legal.
The judge granted a preliminary injunction blocking the ban from taking effect last year, which the state Supreme Court upheld in March.
Chief Justice Jon Jensen wrote in the court’s March decision that “it is clear the citizens of North Dakota have a right to enjoy and defend life and a right to pursue and obtain safety, which necessarily includes a pregnant woman has a fundamental right to obtain an abortion to preserve her life or her health.”
Soon afterward, North Dakota’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed a bill revising the state’s abortion laws, which Gov. Doug Burgum signed into effect in April.
In June, the clinic filed an amended complaint, joined by several doctors in obstetrics, gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine. A jury trial is scheduled for August 2024.
NOVEMBER 14, 2023:
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota judge has ruled that he won’t immediately block the state’s ban on gender-affirming health care for minors, delivering an early setback to families who want the new law found unconstitutional. District Judge Jackson Lofgren on Monday (Nov. 13, 2023) denied a temporary restraining order the plaintiffs had requested. They’ve also asked for a preliminary injunction that would temporarily block enforcement of the law as their case proceeds. A hearing is set for January for that request. Lofgren cited the plaintiffs’ “nearly five-month delay” in filing their complaint, and their argument hinging “upon inclusion in a protected class not previously recognized by the North Dakota Supreme Court or a new application of state constitutional principles.”
SEPTEMBER 15, 2023:
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Three families and a pediatrician in North Dakota are seeking to block the state’s ban on gender-affirming health care for minors. The law passed overwhelmingly earlier this year through the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature, and took effect in April when Republican Gov. Doug Burgum signed the bill. The ban includes criminal penalties for health care providers who perform sex reassignment surgeries or prescribe hormone treatments or puberty blockers for minors. One plaintiff family from Fargo says gender-affirming care has improved their child’s wellbeing, but the ban has led them to receive care in Minnesota, farther away, and consider moving out of North Dakota.
MAY 8, 2023:
UNDATED (AP)- North Dakota’s Republican Gov. Doug Burgum has signed a bill into law that allows public school teachers and state government employees to ignore the pronouns their transgender students and colleagues use, the governor’s office announced Monday (May 8, 2023).
The new law also requires teachers to tell a parent or legal guardian if the student identifies as transgender. It also prohibits transgender students from using the bathroom of their choice without prior approval from a parent or guardian.
It is effective immediately.
Burgum said in a statement that the new law “largely codifies existing practices while reaffirming the First Amendment right to free speech … balancing the rights and interests of students, parents and teachers.”
Opponents countered that the state’s Republican leaders are violating the constitutional rights of students and teachers by compelling the speech of adults and potentially exposing children to dangerous repercussions if an abusive parent doesn’t approve.
“Mandatory outing of a student’s trans identity violates their privacy rights at school – particularly for trans youth who cannot be safe at home. And creating a supportive working and learning environment also requires treating people with dignity and respect, including – at a minimum – calling them by the name and pronouns they want to use. These are both unlawful and discriminatory practices,” said Cody Schuler, advocacy manager of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota.
Supporters have said the measure boosts parental rights and brings peace of mind to teachers. Others said the governor should have done more to limit trans rights.
It’s only the latest measure restricting trans rights that Burgum signed after they were passed by North Dakota’s House and Senate with veto-proof majorities, part of a larger push by Republican officials nationwide to roll back the rights of their LGBTQ+ constituents.
Other new North Dakota laws prohibit transgender girls and women from joining female sports teams, from K-12 through college. They criminalize health care providers who give gender-affirming care to minors. And they limit transgender children and adults in accessing the bathrooms, locker rooms and showers of their choice, from schools to state-run colleges and correctional facilities.
At least 21 states have restricted or banned female transgender athletes’ participation in female sports, and at least 14 states have restricted or banned gender-affirming care for minors. Additionally, at least eight states have enacted laws preventing transgender people from using the restrooms associated with their gender identities.
APRIL 20, 2023:
Extended version:
UNDATED (AP)-Teachers in North Dakota can still refer to transgender students by the personal pronouns they use, after lawmakers on Monday (April 17, 2023) failed to override the governor’s veto of a controversial bill to place restrictions on educators.
House lawmakers fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to block the veto, days after Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s office announced the veto and the Senate overrode it.
The bill would have prohibited public school teachers and employees from acknowledging the personal pronouns a transgender student uses, unless they received permission from the student’s parents as well as a school administrator. It would have also prohibited government agencies from requiring employees to acknowledge the pronouns a transgender colleagues uses.
Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have drafted hundreds of laws this year to push back on LGBTQ+ freedoms, particularly seeking to regulate aspects of transgender people’s lives including gender-affirming health care, bathroom use, athletics and drag performances.
“Ask yourself, does Senate Bill 2231 treat others the way you would want to be treated?” Republican Rep. Emily O’Brien of Grand Forks said on the House floor, adding that overriding the veto would perpetuate “discrimination, hatred or prejudice.”
Republican Rep. SuAnn Olson of Baldwin said the bill protects freedom of speech for teachers and keeps “inappropriate” topics out of the classroom.
North Dakota will consider other bills this session about transgender students, she said.
Olson said that if lawmakers “are firm on this bill, on girls’ athletics, on separate bathrooms, we will strengthen public schools.” But allowing what she called an “emphasis on sexuality” in schools would cause students and teachers to abandon the public education system.
State representatives voted 56-36 to override the governor’s veto, but 63 votes were required.
All 12 Democrats in the House voted against the bill, as did 24 Republicans. One was Rep. Eric Murphy, of Grand Forks, an associate professor of biomedical sciences at the University of North Dakota.
“I’m tired of these bills. I’m tired of both sides,” Murphy said on the House floor. “If a student wants to be called a different pronoun, does that really matter? Is this earth-shattering?”
In a letter to state lawmakers announcing his veto, the governor said, “The teaching profession is challenging enough without the heavy hand of state government forcing teachers to take on the role of pronoun police.” The First Amendment already protects teachers from speaking contrary to their beliefs, and existing law protects the free speech rights of state employees, Burgum added.
Lawmakers who supported the bill have said in debates that it would free teachers from worrying about how to address each student and create a better learning environment.
Opponents said the bill targets transgender students who already have disproportionately high risks of suicide.
In 2021, Burgum vetoed a bill that would have barred transgender girls from playing on girls’ teams in public schools. Lawmakers didn’t override that veto, but they’re considering new legislation this session to replicate and expand that bill — including at the college level.
Last week, President Joe Biden denounced what he called hundreds of hateful and extreme state laws that target transgender kids and their families.
“The bullying, discrimination, and political attacks that trans kids face have exacerbated our national mental health crisis,” Biden said. “These attacks are un-American and must end.”
Extended version:
UNDATED (AP)- Public schools and state agencies in North Dakota would be prohibited from referring to students and employees by any pronouns that don’t reflect the sex assigned to them at birth, under a bill approved by the legislature.
The House approved the bill 60-32 on Wednesday (March 22, 2023). It passed the Senate last month and now awaits the signature of Republican Gov. Doug Burgum.
In 2021, Burgum vetoed a bill that would have restricted transgender students from participating in public elementary and secondary school sports. But Burgum has not said publicly if he supports this latest measure.
The bill is among hundreds nationwide that are taking aim at nearly every facet of transgender existence, from pronouns to bathroom use to health care to athletics. In North Dakota, similar bills to restrict transgender athletes have passed the House this session with veto-proof majorities. The Senate has not yet voted on them. Last week, Wyoming became the 19th state to ban transgender athletes from playing on girls or women’s sports teams.
“It’s another week of a legislative session, and we have another bill that’s telling certain people that they have value or don’t have value in our state,” Democratic Rep. Josh Boschee of Fargo said as he urged lawmakers to vote against the pronoun bill.
Right before the vote, Republican Rep. SuAnn Olson of Baldwin countered: “Five years ago, this whole pronoun thing wasn’t a thing. It puts teachers in the very difficult position” of keeping up with students who switch their pronoun, she said. “It’s just a common-sense bill that deserves a green vote.”
The bill would not criminalize teachers or state employees. And if a teacher received approval from a student’s parent or guardian — and from the school administrator — the teacher would be allowed to use the pronouns a student prefers.
Although the measure also affects state employees outside the schools, Wednesday’s debate focused mostly on educational staff who would be affected. Supporters said the bill would ease burdens on teachers and create better learning environments for students
The bill would allow teachers to “rest with relief that they only need to remember one name and (one) set of historically recognized biological pronouns,” Republican Rep. Lori VanWinkle, of Minot, said in support. She added that the bill would instill confidence in parents that their kids are safe at school and create learning environments without “social distractions.”
Opponents including Democratic Rep. Mary Schneider of Fargo cited the testimony of countless people who argued the bill would harm LGBTQ youth: mental health therapists, school counselors, social workers, suicide prevention advocates, church leaders and more.
Schneider noted that these experts said the bill would not protect kids or promote learning, because “the real threats to children are poverty, hunger, lack of health care, gun violence, bigotry, social pressures, mental health and bills like these.”
Democrats and Republicans voted against the bill.
A survey by The Trevor Project in 2022 found that 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the previous year, but that those who were supported socially or at school reported lower rates.
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