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BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Leaders of North Dakota's sole abortion clinic in Fargo say they may again challenge a state law requiring doctors who perform abortions to obtain hospital-admitting privileges now that a similar law in Texas was struck down Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Our lawyers are still analyzing the decision," said Tammi Kromenaker, director of the Red River Women's Clinic. "This is not an immediate reversal of our law. If there is something we can do, we will move forward in light of this Supreme Court decision."
The high court ruled 5-3 that a 2013 Texas law requiring admitting privileges at nearby hospital places an undue burden on a woman's right to end a pregnancy. North Dakota's Legislature passed a similar law the same year.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, which represented the Fargo clinic and is based in New York, filed a lawsuit in state court challenging North Dakota's law that required admitting privileges within 30 miles of the facility. The center and other abortion rights groups said it would effectively make abortions illegal in North Dakota because it could make it impossible for doctors to meet the number of hospital visits required to gain admitting privileges. They also said abortions are generally safe and women rarely need further care requiring hospitalization.
The clinic, which performs about 1,200 abortions a year, is served by three out-of-state physicians licensed to practice in North Dakota.
The case was slated for trial in 2014 but was settled after Sanford Health, a Fargo and Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based health system, approved credential for the clinic's three doctors at its hospital in Fargo.
North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said state attorneys on Monday were reviewing the Supreme Court decision, but that another legal battle appears unnecessary.
"They wouldn't need to challenge if they continue to maintain their hospital-admitting privileges," Stenehjem said. "If they decide to maintain their admitting privileges, we don't have an issue here."
Stenehjem said unlike the Texas law, North Dakota did not impose additional requirements for an abortion facility. And he said the Supreme Court's ruling that the Texas law placed an "undue burden" on abortion facilities due to the admitting privileges is moot in North Dakota because the clinic in Fargo ultimately obtained credentials for its doctors.
As part of the North Dakota settlement, the parties in agreed to dismiss the case with no costs or attorney fees paid. The agreement also requires the physicians performing abortions at the clinic to maintain admitting privileges as long as the law remains in effect and that additional physicians to get admitting privileges, too.
The admitting privilege measure was one of four that the Republican-controlled Legislature and GOP Gov. Jack Dalrymple passed in 2013 that made North Dakota among the most difficult states in which to get an abortion. Other measures included banning an abortion if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which could be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy and before some women know they are pregnant.
The high court in January rejected the state's appeal of a lower court decision that struck down the fetal heartbeat law as unconstitutional. North Dakota in April agreed to pay a $245,000 settlement paid lawyers representing the Fargo clinic to settle that case.
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