The ban would also have severely restricted emergency abortion care for women with high-risk pregnancies, forcing doctors to wait until a woman's condition posed an immediate threat of death or catastrophic damage before offering her appropriate medical care.

In its opinion, the panel rejected what they deemed an undue legislative intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship, as the New York Times reports:

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An excerpt (emphasis mine):

Just in the last several days, a Bismarck news anchor mistakenly uttered vulgarity on live television. He's been heralded by celebrities from New York to California as some sort of pop icon. His bosses have been called goons because they fired him.

We learned this week that the Pentagon is vetting its guide on religious tolerance with a group that compared Christian evangelism to rape, and advocated that military personnel and colluding chaplains who proselytize should be court-marshalled.

Forty years ago, the United States Supreme Court sanctioned abortion on demand. And we wonder why our culture sees school shootings so often.

Not exactly "This is water," is it?

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The Red River Women's Clinic argues in the suit that the law could make abortion impossible to access in the state, effectively banning it.

President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights Nancy Northup, a co-sponsor of the suit, said in a statement on Wednesday that the law is a dangerous barrier to safe abortion care that could jeopardize women's health: "With their relentless campaign to end safe and legal abortion in North Dakota, lawmakers have effectively told the women of their state, 'We don't care about your health, we don't care about your safety, and we sure don't care about your constitutional and human rights.'"

As the Associated Press notes, the requirements mandated by the law, set to take effect on August 1, are almost impossible for the state's last remaining clinic to comply with: "Opponents of the measure say it's impossible for abortion doctors in North Dakota to meet the minimum number of hospital visits required for because the procedure is safe and women rarely need further care."

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The first sign that some of the 54 senators who voted against the background check bill were in trouble came from New Hampshire, where first-term Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s approval rating fell to 44 percent, a 15 percent drop from a survey last fall by Public Policy Polling. New Hampshire newspapers slammed her vote, with the Concord Monitor calling it “utter nonsense” and an “abomination.”

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On Wednesday, Clemente appeared on the "Today" show and "Late Show" with David Letterman to discuss the firing. Letterman even rallied for getting Clemente his job back:

"I'm telling you, this is nothing," Letterman told Clemente. "People who have been in the business for decades have had this happen to them -- some even knowing they were on camera have done things like this. You, my friend, have nothing to worry about."

But the unexpected stardom may have already gone to Clemente's head, who joked, "I’ve thought about it, but if, you know, ESPN comes knocking…”

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It is, in effect, an antiabortion greatest-hits law.

At the bill's signing ceremony, the arch-conservative governor applauded the Legislature for passing the measure with sweeping margins and announced:  "All human life is sacred. It's beautiful. With this, we continue to build this culture of life in our state."

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Clemente did not realize his mic was on during the intro credits to his first on-air news segment, and insists he was not saying "gay," but was instead practicing the pronunciation of London Marathon winner Tsegaye Kebede's first name. (Related: London Marathon runner "Fucking Shit" seems to have placed 4th in the race.)

Clemente has since been suspended, according to a statement from the station:

To all of you who are writing in...I want to apologize for an incident that occurred prior to our early newscast this evening, when one of our employees used profanity on the air.

He did not realize his microphone was on, but still, that's no excuse. WE train our reporters to always assume that any microphone is live at any time. Unfortunately, that was not enough in this case. WE can't take back what was said. The person involved has been suspended until we resolve the situation. All we can do at this point is ask for your forgiveness, and I can offer my personal assurance that I will do my best to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again under my watch.

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The 22-year-old mother of one, identified only as Beatriz, is four-and-a-half months pregnant, but her doctors have confirmed that the fetus has anencephaly (developing without a brain and certain parts of the skull) and that the pregnancy is nonviable. In addition to the fetal diagnosis, Beatriz is experiencing critical health complications related to her lupus and kidney disease.

The hospital treating Beatriz requested legal permission to perform the abortion more than a month ago, but authorities have still not agreed to let them proceed. Now, if government policy and religious ideology interfering with a woman's right to access abortion care or a doctor's ability to exercise medical judgment and save a woman's life sounds familiar, it should.

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But North Dakota is also red in another sense: it fully supports its state-owned Bank of North Dakota (BND), a socialist relic that exists nowhere else in America. Why is financial socialism still alive in North Dakota? Why haven't the North Dakotan free-market crusaders slain it dead?

Because it works.

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North Dakota has also been in the news for another reason recently. What was it, again? Oh, right, it passed the most restrictive antiabortion laws in the country. Including a law specifically aimed at shutting down the state's lone abortion provider. It passed this law knowing it was unconstitutional.

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"This [pigeon flock] was a biological storm that was rejuvenating resources and allowing other animals to thrive," Novak said of the storms of Ectopistes migratorius feces that used to fall like rain on the landscape of eastern North America. Plus, with the regrowth of forest on the east coast "there is more passenger pigeon habitat every year."

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Minutes after Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed three anti-abortion measures — one banning them as early as six weeks into a pregnancy — unsolicited donations began pouring into the state's lone abortion clinic to help opponents prove the new laws are unconstitutional.

"Although the likelihood of this measure surviving a court challenge remains in question, this bill is nevertheless a legitimate attempt by a state legislature to discover the boundaries of Roe v. Wade," Dalrymple said in a statement, referring to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion up to until a fetus is considered viable — usually at 22 to 24 weeks.

Dalrymple seemed determined to open a legal debate on the legislation, acknowledging "the constitutionality of this measure is an open question." He asked the Legislature to set aside money for a "litigation fund" that would allow the state's attorney general to defend the measure against lawsuits.

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Abortion-rights advocates say the measures signed Tuesday are an attempt to close the state’s sole abortion clinic in Fargo. Supporters of the so-called fetal heartbeat measure say it’s a challenge the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion up until a fetus is considered viable, usually at 22 to 24 weeks.

Abortion-rights advocates say the state will have to defend the legislation in a costly legal fight.

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In recent weeks Republican state legislators have decided to thwart the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in “Roe v. Wade,” which gave women the right to have an abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb, usually around 24 weeks into pregnancy.

Legislators in North Dakota passed a bill banning abortions after six weeks or after a fetal heart beat had been detected, and approved a fall referendum that would ban all abortions by defining human life as beginning with conception. Lawmakers in Arkansas have banned abortions within twelve weeks of conception.

The morality brigade worries about fetuses, but not what happens to children after they’re born. They and other conservatives have been cutting funding for child nutrition, healthcare for infants and their mothers, and schools.

The new House Republican budget gets a big chunk of its savings from programs designed to help poor kids. The budget sequester already in effect takes aim at programs like Head Start, designed to improve the life chances of disadvantaged children.

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Dalrymple may break with his fellow Republicans to veto the unconstitutional measure, but the bill has enough support to pass without him. The Republican-controlled legislature has said the goal of the ban is to challenge Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that defines fetal viability between 22 to 24 weeks.

Although it was overridden, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe explained his veto on the state's 12-week abortion ban citing how it would prove “very costly to the taxpayers” given that “lawsuits challenging unconstitutional laws also result in the losing party — in this case, the state — being ordered to pay the costs and attorneys’ fees incurred by the litigants who successfully challenge the law. Those costs and fees can be significant.”

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The state successfully passed yet another restrictive, Supreme Court-baiting antiabortion measure, this time voting to define a "person" as "an individual member of the species homo sapiens at every stage of development" -- including human embryos.

In short: They have endowed fertilized eggs with the same rights as a living, breathing person. A move that would restrict all abortions except in narrowly defined cases where a woman's life is at risk.

According to the abortion rights group Parents Against Personhood, the bill:

Contains an exception for “medical treatment of life-threatening conditions of pregnancy”, for “contraception administered before clinically diagnosable pregnancy,” and for “screening, collecting, preparing, transferring, or cryopreserving of a human being created through in vitro fertilization for the purpose of being transferred to a human uterus”.

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"I was just shocked at how many new people there were," Meyer said during a recent campaign swing through a south Dickinson mobile home park. "I didn't see one North Dakota (license) plate."

The oil boom that has transformed North Dakota's economy and reshaped the rolling prairie landscape has also added an element of mystery to next week's election by adding thousands of potential new voters to the region's tiny electorate. And the political suspense is tied to the national question of which party controls the Senate in January.

North Dakota's contest is one of several states with Senate contests that have remained tied for months, with no signs of clarifying before Tuesday's election. A handful of them, such as Montana's Senate race one state west, may not even be resolved then.

Republicans are still looking to gain four seats they need to win the Senate majority if President Barack Obama wins reelection, three if GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney prevails.

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