Abortion Overshadows Oil Boom as North Dakota Aims to Topple Roe

North Dakota, which has fewer inhabitants than Columbus, Ohio, was until recently best known for the oil boom consuming its western half and creating a $1.6 billion surplus equivalent to more than $2,200 per resident.

It’s now become the center of the national debate over abortion. Lawyers and activists see a new law passed there -- which would prohibit the procedure once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, as early as six weeks -- as a step toward toppling Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision legalizing a woman’s right to end her pregnancy.