North Dakota’s highest court ruled Friday to keep the state’s overturned abortion ban from being enforced during an appeal of a decision by a judge that struck down the law in September.

The North Dakota Supreme Court on Friday declined to reinstate a near-total abortion ban as the state’s appeal proceeds. In a Friday majority opinion by Justice Daniel Crothers, the court appeared skeptical of several of the state’s core arguments defending the law,

Abortion remains legal for now in North Dakota, though there are no abortion clinics operating there, after the lead plaintiff in the appeal moved into Minnesota.

While a lawsuit against the state's ban on abortion takes place, the procedure will remain legal in hospital settings only for live-saving measures.