It looks like North Dakota will be the first state in the union where a woman won’t be able to have an abortion — for any reason.
North Dakota has only one abortion clinic and has been rated the worst state in the country for women, but the State Senate passed two bills on Thursday will make it even more difficult for women in the state to access abortion care.
North Dakota lawmakers passed a Personhood Constitutional Amendment initiative on Thursday that would amend the state’s constitution to give legal rights and protections to human embryos. If the ballot initiative passes the House, North Dakota voters will decide on it during the 2014 elections.
Worse, the personhood amendment would criminalize abortion, turning doctors and pregnant women who seek an abortion into fugitives.
I’m not so sure the Republicans are as doomed as the election seemed to indicate. They appear to be successfully achieving all varieties of awfulness at the state and local level.