North Dakota judge strikes down state law on nonsurgical abortion drugs

The state judge issues an opinion from an April trial. In the meantime, new abortion and "personhood" proposals in that state rankle some medical professionals.

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Judge Rules North Dakota Law On Medication Abortions Is Unconstitutional; State To Appeal
A 2011 North Dakota law that outlaws one of two drugs used in nonsurgical abortions violates the state and U.S. constitutions, a state judge ruled Monday. After a three-day trial in April, East Central Judge Wickham Corwin said he'd rule in favor of the state's sole abortion clinic, calling the 2011 state law "simply wrongheaded." Corwin officially ruled on the case Monday (7/15).

MinnPost: Potential Effects Of New Anti-Abortion Laws And 2014 'Personhood' Measure Raise Medical Concerns In N. Dakota
Among the patients Dr. Stephanie Dahl has treated so far this year were two college students with cancer. Both radiation and chemotherapy can destroy a woman's fertility. So that each has the chance to have a family at a better time, Dahl, a reproductive endocrinologist in Fargo, N.D., fertilized eggs from each and froze the resulting embryos. If North Dakota voters next year approve a radical proposal to define "personhood" as beginning the moment sperm meets egg, Dahl will have to stop offering in-vitro fertilization, among other services, or risk criminal charges (Hawkins, 7/15).