A Year of Change for a North Dakota Abortion Clinic

Published: June 26, 2023, 4 p.m.

b"A year ago, the staff writer Emily Witt visited Fargo, North Dakota, to report on the Red River Women\\u2019s Clinic\\u2014the only abortion provider in the state. The Supreme Court\\u2019s Dobbs decision had just come down, and the clinic was scrambling to move across state lines, to the adjacent city of Moorhead, Minnesota. This spring, Witt returned to talk with Tammi Kromenaker, the clinic\\u2019s director. Kromenaker says the clinic\\u2019s new home has had some notable upsides\\u2014a parking lot that shields patients from protesters, for example\\u2014but North Dakota patients are increasingly fearful as they reach out, afraid even to cross the state line into Minnesota for care. \\u201cIt only takes one rogue prosecutor,\\u201d she tells Witt. \\u201cI think people know that and have it in the back of their minds.\\u201d Kromenaker herself is experiencing what she calls \\u201csurvivor\\u2019s guilt,\\u201d recognizing how lucky she\\u2019s been in comparison to her peers in other conservative states. \\u201cIt's just been a really hard year in a lot of ways for providers.\\u201d"