North Dakota Senate Passes Bill Banning Abortions After Six Weeks

This follows an Arkansas law banning abortions at 12 weeks.

The bill, which now goes to Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple, would also be the first in the country to outlaw abortions based on a fetal defect.

Taken together, the Arkansas and North Dakota brand seem to represent a shift in power within the antiabortion movement. Scholars who study social movements, like Ziad Munson at Lehigh University, tend to divide the group into two factions.

There are those who see Roe as the law of the land, and try to work within the confines of the Supreme Court decision. They would prefer that zero abortions occur, but recognize that the current legal landscape is unlikely to yield such a result. So they focus on passing restrictions that would be legal under that Supreme Court decision, such as parental notification laws or waiting periods.

The other faction tends to be more aggressive; they don’t accept the Roe v. Wade decision as law and don’t use it as a framework for passing legislation. They tend to be more ideological and less pragmatic, thinking about the best ways to restrict abortion regardless of whether they’ll be upheld by the Supreme Court.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.