North Dakota judge invites Supreme Court to reverse his ruling, cites 'master race' concerns
FARGO — Judge Ralph Erickson did something unusual in ruling that two new abortion restrictions in Arkansas are illegal — he invited the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the decision and give states the authority to ban abortions.
And his plea in an opinion filed Jan. 5 cited his concerns of the potential of a new eugenics movement aimed at creating a “master race” by aborting unborn children who do not match an idealized notion of humanity.
Erickson, who is seated in Fargo and serves on the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, took the unusual step of urging the Supreme Court to revisit abortion law, which is legal throughout the country but subject to restrictions imposed by states.
The twist came in the case of Little Rock Family Planning v. Rutledge. A panel of federal appeals judges, including Erickson, upheld a U.S. District Court ruling striking down two abortion restrictions enacted in 2019, a ban of abortions after 18 weeks and a ban on abortions stemming from a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, a genetic defect that occurs in one of every 700 births in the United States.
Read more: https://www.inforum.com/news/crime-and-courts/6843338-North-Dakota-judge-invites-Supreme-Court-to-reverse-his-ruling-cites-master-race-concerns