Key facts: ND Human Life Amendment

Background
North Dakota voters will have an opportunity to enact the proposed Human Life Amendment this November. The proposed amendment to North Dakota’s state constitution provides as follows:

“The inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be recognized and protected.”

The proposed amendment was passed by a bi-partisan majority of both the House and the Senate of the state legislature.

Purpose
North Dakota’s legislature has passed a variety of strong, common-sense pro-life laws. These include ensuring that women are given full disclosure of information prior to an abortion, making sure parents are notified if their daughter is seeking an abortion, and prohibiting children who are partially born from being killed by an abortionist before their birth can be completed.

Unfortunately, the wealthy abortion industry regularly challenges North Dakota’s pro-life laws and attempts to persuade judges to invent a state constitutional right to abortion as a way of overturning these laws. The Human Life Amendment will give the state needed legal protection against a judge inventing a right to abortion, as recently happened in Fargo.

Ruling on the validity of two laws passed by the legislature to protect the health and safety of women receiving abortions, Judge Wickham Corwin claimed that the North Dakota constitution contains an implicit right to abortion. The Human Life Amendment will give the state needed legal protection against these attacks.

Amendment supporters
The amendment is supported by “ND Choose Life,” a coalition of pro-life, pro-family, women’s and religious organizations including the North Dakota Catholic Conference, North Dakota Family Alliance, North Dakota Life League, Love Them Both, North Dakota Right to Life and the North Dakota chapter of Concerned Women for America LAC, among others. The coalition’s web site is NDChooseLife.com.

Amendment opponents
Groups such as Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights oppose the amendment just as they oppose any common-sense law that reduces abortion. In a prior campaign in North Dakota regarding religious liberty, the abortion industry was responsible for virtually all of the funds used to oppose the amendment.

Take action
To stay up-to-date with the latest information regarding the ND Human Life Amendment, sign up to receive email updates at NDchooselife.com or follow ND Choose Life on Facebook & Twitter.