Everything Doug Burgum has said about abortion and trans issues

Donald Trump has tapped North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to lead the Department of the Interior, and Newsweek have looked at his journal on abortion and trans issues.

Burgum, 67, was revealed as Trump’s choice Thursday during a speech at an event at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. He has been governor since 2016 and is a Trump loyalist supporting the president-elect after dropping out of the race for this year’s GOP presidential nomination in December 2023.

As Secretary of the Interior, Burgum would oversee the management of federal lands, the use of natural resources, Native American affairs, and environmental protection.

While Burgum has a reputation for being a business-minded conservative, having been a successful software executive in the early 2000s, he has also signed some of the nation’s strictest abortion laws into effect for his state.

On top of this, he was once called out by the Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest LGBTQI+ civil rights organization, for signing some policies it considered discriminatory. Here’s everything you need to know.

Newsweek has contacted Burgum’s team, via email, for further comment.

Doug Burgum on abortion

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade by 2022 North Dakota essentially banned abortion with few exceptions.

Abortion was permitted in cases of rape, incest or medical emergencies, but only up to six weeks of pregnancy. After this time, victims of rape and incest could not get an abortion.

The Red River Women’s Clinic, which was North Dakota’s only abortion clinic before it moved to Minnesota, sued the state, and South Central Judicial District Judge Bruce sided with the clinic in September.

He ruled that the law “takes away a woman’s fundamental rights to liberty and her fundamental right to pursue and achieve security and happiness” and “impermissibly infringes on the constitutional rights of crime victims.” North Dakota Monitor reported at the time.

The state has filed a notice of appeal with the North Dakota Supreme Court, asking to keep its abortion ban in effect while the appeal is reviewed.

Earlier this year, before the election, Trump called Burgum’s signing of the ban “a problem.” In July, when Trump was asked whether Burgum was a possibility for his running mate on Fox News Radio, Trump said, “You know, I think Doug is great. But … he’s taken a very strong position, or the state has , I don’t know if it’s Doug, but the state has, so it’s a problem.”

In 2016, Burgum was actually against banning abortions. That year, during his first campaign for governor, he said, “When you ban the ability to terminate pregnancies and make it illegal, it just makes it unsafe for some of the most vulnerable people in the world — young women who are afraid, who are scared, who are in a place you know they don’t want to be in.”

He has since been questioned about his shift in stance on this issue, saying he has “evolved.”

“I’ve been clear that I’m opposed to a federal abortion ban. I’m aligned with President Trump on that, and that’s something that should be left up to the states,” Burgum said. Meet the press in June this year, adding that the reason for this was the improvement of maternity care.

He said: “Everybody…knows that care has evolved over that period. And I think we can achieve both of those goals. We can make sure that we protect and honor life, but make sure , that we are also delivering against maternal care And that will be handled best on a state-by-state level.”

Doug Burgum on trans issues

Last year, Burgum signed several bills classified as anti-LGBTQI+ by the Human Rights Campaign.

These included HB 1473, which prohibits transgender people from using same-sex bathrooms and showers in a correctional facility, a domestic violence organization, or a college or residence hall controlled by an institution under state control, such as a university.

He also signed HB 1254, which bans gender-affirming care for minors, meaning doctors cannot prescribe treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery for children.

Other bills Burgum has signed restrict “adult-oriented performances,” which include drag shows, from taking place in public where minors can see them (HB 1333) and three separate pieces of legislation (HB 1249, 1489 and HCR 3010) that restrict participation in women’s sports to biological females.

Burgum also faced backlash for including the right of “religious objection” in the religious freedom bill HB 1136, with critics arguing that this could be used for businesses and even medical professionals to discriminate against LGBTQI+ individuals by, for example, denying them services.

During Burgum’s campaign for the Republican Party presidential nomination, he called trans rights part of a “culture war” and said he would leave trans laws to the states.