ND Attorney Gen. to ask for Supreme Court review

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – North Dakota’s attorney general tells The Associated Press that he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appeals court ruling that the state’s law banning abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected is unconstitutional.

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem (STEHN’-juhm) has until Tuesday to make the formal request.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a decision last year from federal Judge Daniel Hovland, who ruled the law unconstitutional. The Republican-dominated Legislature passed the law in 2013, though it was quickly put on hold after the state’s lone abortion clinic sued.

Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple has called the law “a legitimate attempt by a state Legislature to discover the boundaries of Roe v. Wade.”

Opponents say it’s an attempt to shutter the abortion clinic in Fargo.