Contact: Tom Ciesielka, 312-422-1333, tc@tcpr.net 

BISMARCK, N.D., Oct. 2, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- Yesterday, on behalf of the North Dakota Catholic Conference, the Thomas More Society filed a friend-of-the-court brief before the North Dakota Supreme Court defending the State's law regulating medical abortions. The case, MKB Management Corp. v. Burdick, is especially important because the critical issue in the appeal is whether the North Dakota Constitution recognizes a right to abortion.

"The district court's judgment, recognizing a fundamental right to abortion under the state constitution, threatens a wide range of abortion regulations the State has enacted, including parental consent, informed consent, waiting periods and public funding restrictions, as well as virtually any other abortion regulation the State may enact," said Paul Linton, special counsel for the Thomas More Society and principal author of the amicus curiae brief. "Nothing in the text, history or interpretation of the North Dakota Constitution requires such a radical inclusion of abortion. We are confident that the Supreme Court will find no right to abortion in the state constitution."

The brief adds: "The North Dakota Constitution 'must be interpreted in light of the rights and liberties it was created to uphold, and not the philosophical viewpoints of the judiciary who hold the responsibility of interpretation.' Nothing in the state constitution was intended to create or recognize a right to abortion."

Paul Linton, a constitutional scholar, is author of the widely acclaimed state-by-state analysis of state constitutions with respect to abortion rights claims, Abortion Under State Constitutions (2d ed. 2012, North Carolina Academic Press).

A copy of the Society's brief may be found here.

The case will likely be decided sometime early next year.

About the Thomas More Society
Thomas More Society is a national not-for-profit law firm that exists to restore respect in law for life, marriage, and religious liberty. Headquartered in Chicago, the Society fosters support for these causes by providing high quality pro-bono professional legal services from local trial courts all the way to the United States Supreme Court. www.thomasmoresociety.org