A North Dakota judge denied a request to temporarily block part of the state’s law that doctors claim puts them at risk of prosecution if they perform an abortion.

State District Judge Bruce Romanick ruled on Tuesday that the request from a women’s health clinic for a preliminary injunction “is not appropriate and the plaintiffs have presented no authority for the court to grant the specific relief requested,” according to the Associated Press.

After the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in June 2022, overturning the 50-year constitutional right to an abortion, North Dakota’s trigger ban was set to go into place.

Red River Women’s Clinic, which once was North Dakota’s only abortion provider based in Fargo before moving to neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, sued the state over the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling.

Romanick granted a preliminary injunction blocking the near-total abortion ban in 2022, upheld by the state Supreme Court in March 2023. North Dakota’s highest court ruled that the temporary block on the state’s trigger ban was to remain in place while its constitutionality is held up in a lawsuit.

“While the regulation of abortion is within the authority of the legislature under the North Dakota Constitution, RRWC has demonstrated likely success on the merits that there is a fundamental right to an abortion in the limited instances of life-saving and health-preserving circumstances, and the statute is not narrowly tailored to satisfy strict scrutiny,” Chief Justice Jon J. Jensen wrote in a March 16 ruling.

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However, the Republican-led North Dakota legislature passed a new bill that Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) signed in April. The law allows doctors who violate the measure to be charged with a Class C felony, which includes a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. The bill bans abortion with limited exceptions in the state, such as rape, incest, or a medical emergency only during the first six weeks.

Red River Women’s Clinic representatives asked the judge last June to block the enforcement of part of North Dakota’s revised law, which they said penalizes doctors. But Romanick rejected the request for a  preliminary injunction, and the jury trial is expected to start in August.