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Case Against ND’s Only Abortion Clinic Dismissed

North Dakota’s sole abortion clinic, the Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo won a small victory Tuesday in the ongoing battle against anti-abortionists intent on infusing science and medicine with conservative ideology. The North Dakota Supreme Court upheld an earlier court’s decision last year to dismiss Amy Jo Kjolsrud’s 1999 lawsuit against the clinic, alleging that Red River failed to disseminate information on a potential link between breast cancer and abortion. Justice William Neumann issued the high court’s decision, writing that Kjolsrud lacked legal standing, as she was never a patient and had never reviewed the clinic’s brochures stating “A substantial body of medical research indicates that there is no established link between abortion and breast cancer,” reported Kaisernetwork.org. According to the lower court ruling issued by the East Central District Court in 2002, the clinic’s materials were deemed neither false or misleading and Kjolsrud is liable to pay Red River over $30,000 in legal fee reimbursement, reported the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR).

Linda Rosenthal, CRR attorney and lead counsel representing the clinic, praised the high court’s decision. “Anti-abortion extremists should think twice before suing abortion providers over frivolous claims, such as the debunked abortion-breast cancer link,” she said, according to CRR’s press release.

LEARN MORE Read an in-depth story on the anti-abortion campaign to link abortion and breast cancer in Ms. magazine

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Sources:

Center for Reproductive Rights 9/23/03; Kaisernetwork.org 9/25/03

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