The North Dakota Legislature voted Monday to ban abortion in the event that a future Supreme Court ruling makes such a move constitutional.

Under the ban, abortion providers would face criminal charges unless the pregnancy they're terminating is a threat to the mother's life or the result of rape or incest. Those found guilty of performing an illegal abortion would face a maximum penalty of five years in jail, a $5,000 fine or both.

Don Larson, a spokesman for Gov. John Hoeven, said the governor supports such a ban and will sign the bill.

"He's been clear on what his position is and won't deviate," Larson said.

Upon Hoeven's expected signature, the bill would lie dormant, waiting for the attorney general to rule that the legal environment has changed such that it's "reasonably probable" that the ban would be constitutional.

"In the overall scheme of things, it doesn't make much of a difference unless the Supreme Court does something," said Sen. Majority Leader Bob Stenehjem, R-Bismarck.

If enacted, North Dakota would be the second state behind Mississippi to enact an abortion ban triggered by court action.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. James Kerzman, D-Mott, said the trigger concept was a convenient way for the Legislature to enact its desired policy on abortion without plunging North Dakota into a costly national legal battle.

His bill received bipartisan support Monday, passing 68-24 in the House and 29-16 in the Senate.

Christopher Dodson, executive director of the North Dakota Catholic Conference, called it an important step.

"It furthers the culture of life so we don't turn our back on unborn children or the women who carry them," Dodson said.

Tim Stanley, a lobbyist with Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, called the ban "an extreme and dangerous law that sacrifices women's safety and criminalizes doctors."

Monday's vote comes just one week after the Supreme Court broke with its prior abortion rulings to uphold a federal ban on intact dilation and extraction, a procedure that opponents call "partial-birth abortion." Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL-Pro Choice, said in a press release that the decision "has given anti-choice state lawmakers the green light to open the flood gates and launch additional attacks on safe, legal abortion."

But Stenehjem said he didn't think the court's decision had any influence on the Legislature's vote.

"I think they already had their minds made up," he said.

After Monday's vote, legislators expressed wide range of opinions on its significance.

Sen. Dave Nething, R-Jamestown, said the law puts the state in a position to immediately enact its desired abortion policy if the national legal scene changes.

Sen. Connie Triplett, D-Grand Forks, said its only real effect would be to make thoughtful people uncomfortable living in the state.

North Dakota had 770 abortions last year. Abortions in the state account for one out of every 1,000 abortions nationwide, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a group that studies and advocates for abortion rights.

(Reach reporter Jonathan Rivoli at 223-8482 or jonathan.rivoli@;bismarcktribune.com)