The Supreme Court won't consider letting North Dakota ban abortions at 6 weeks

SCOTUS says no to North Dakota.
(Image credit: iStock)

The Supreme Court denied a North Dakota abortion case Monday, leaving the state unable to enforce a ban on abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Lower court rulings had deemed the 2013 law unconstitutional, so it never went into effect.

Fetal heartbeats can be detected as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, The Associated Press reports. Pro-choice advocates have characterized North Dakota's pro-life law as the strictest in the nation.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.