In a race for bragging rights to be the first state in the nation to end abortion services, North Dakota's Governor Jack Dalrymple signed three extreme abortion restrictions this week, less than 24 hours after they landed on his desk. One of them is likely to close the state's only abortion provider, the Red River Women's Clinic. These are the bills:

• HB 1305: Banning abortions for reasons of sex-selection or genetic anomalies.
• HB 1456: Banning abortions from the point at which a heartbeat can be detected.
• SB 2305: Requiring abortion providers to have hospital admitting privileges.

The first two are unlikely to have much effect beyond wasting North Dakota taxpayers' money on lawsuits defending them. Neither is likely to pass constitutional muster, though they contribute to the constant re-litigation of women's basic rights and grab headlines away from the restrictions that most effectively eliminate abortion access.

The last bill, SB 2305, though it sounds the most innocuous, is a Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) bill, designed intentionally to close the state's last clinic. Though proposed as a patient safety measure, Red River is likely to fall short because they have an excellent safety record and local hospitals require doctors to meet a 10 patient per year referral minimum to gain admitting privileges.

“I’ve had one time that I’ve had to admit a patient in the last ten years,” Red River's director, Tammi Kromenaker explained. "I would never employ a doctor who had to admit ten patients a year. That would mean they were a terrible doctor.”

Again, the Red River Women's Clinic is likely to be shut down because it's too safe a medical facility to get hospital admitting privileges.

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No one, I repeat, no one cheers for the existence of abortion. However, it is still a legal practice that women may avail themselves of if they so choose. And until such time as men evolve the ability to conceive and carry a baby to place that onus upon them, it remains a necessary option for some women. With all due respect to the legislators of Mississippi, I trust women are fully capable of making this decision for this legal medical procedure without their concern of "unscrupulous practioners."

A federal judge in Mississippi on Wednesday ordered an extension of his temporary order to allow the state's only abortion clinic to stay open.

The order will be in place until U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan can review newly drafted rules on how the Mississippi Department of Health will administer a new abortion law. He then plans to rule on whether the temporary order will become permanent, or whether the clinic must shut its doors.

The law took effect July 1 and requires all abortion providers in Mississippi to be certified obstetrician/gynecologists with privileges at local hospitals. Doctors at Jackson Women's Health Organization, the only abortion provider in the state, come in from other states, and only one of its doctors is authorized to practice at a nearby hospital.

Supporters of the new law say it is intended to protect women from unscrupulous practitioners, but others say it's part of a move to outlaw abortions in the state. Even Republican Gov. Phil Bryant called it "the first step in a movement, I believe, to do what we campaigned on: to say that we're going to try to end abortion in Mississippi."

Again, it's a legal procedure. The demand for abortions does not go away simply by making clinics disappear. That demand will result in women making riskier choices that could have life-altering (or ending) consequences.

Would that Governor Bryant be as concerned with providing the citizens of Mississippi with accurate and inexpensive access to birth control to prevent the demand for abortion in the first place.