North Dakota’s Near-Total Abortion Ban in State Justices’ Hands

North Dakota’s five supreme court justices seemed undecided Tuesday on whether to allow a law that almost entirely bans abortions to take effect while litigation over its validity under the state’s constitution proceeds.

The law’s highly restrictive nature—it criminalizes abortions at all stages of pregnancy, without exception, but allows doctors to claim certain affirmative defenses—caught the justices’ attention, but first they must decide if the case is properly before them at this point in the proceedings.

State Attorney General Drew Wrigley (R) bypassed the normal procedure of appealing after final judgment and asked the North Dakota Supreme Court to issue ...