Letters to the Editor | January 18th, 2023
Dear Editor,
The North Dakota legislative session has started to pick up. Many of the bills that have come before the committees are just cleaning up some language; others that are yet to come are troubling.
The bills that I am currently the most concerned about are as follows.
Senate Bill 2150 is meant to clean up and merge the language from multiple other statutes and counter the trigger ban currently in the court system. The new bill is the lesser of two evils; however, it is still a total ban on abortion in the state. They have carved out some exceptions in cases of rape and incest, but the time frame is too short to be effective.
They have removed the affirmative defense part of the bill that will protect doctors from prosecution and allow them to perform their job in emergency situations. However, there are holes in the bill regarding fetal defects forcing individuals to carry the baby to full term regardless of the likelihood of viability. I am against the bill in its current form because it still leaves personal autonomy out of the decision-making process. The bill will also make it more difficult to attract and retain medical professionals.
Senate Bill 2199 redefined gender as what is determined at birth and can’t be changed in the future. This bill is based on old fashion gender ideals that science is challenging every day. North Dakotans will be harmed by adding discrimination into its laws. We are struggling to attract talented individuals to the state and making it unwelcoming to a segment of society is a bad business decision.
Senate Bill 2123 is an attempt to censor books that discuss any form of sexuality that can be displayed in schools, libraries, colleges, and universities. This bill is counter to the First Amendment and takes away parental rights. We currently have decency regulations that protect children from pornographic images. Therefore this legislation is unnecessary and is government overreach. We need to protect freedom of speech at all costs and this bill is counter to that.
There are several bills that will be coming down the pipes that are anti-American and discriminatory. I am working hard to defeat these bills and create an open environment for North Dakota.
Sincerely,
Senator Ryan Braunberger
District 10 Fargo
April 18th 2024
April 18th 2024
December 10th 2023
January 15th 2023
March 20th 2022
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