Resource: MKB Management, Inc. v. Burdick

The Center for Reproductive Rights challenged the law on behalf of North Dakota’s only abortion clinic, one of its doctors, and the clinic’s patients. The Center filed its lawsuit in June of 2013, arguing that the ban violated patients’ Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process and equal protection of the laws. North Dakota contended that the law did not ban pre-viability abortions because the state believes viability begins at conception and that Roe v. Wade should be overturned. North Dakota submitted voluminous papers, including arguments that being forced to carry a pregnancy to term is not an economic burden to women and does not hinder a woman’s ability to continue her education or participate in the workforce, and that abortion has hurt the economy of North Dakota because of the loss of potential wage earners.