North Dakota abortion clinic prepares for likely final day

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota's only abortion clinic is preparing for what could be its final day of performing procedures, with a trigger ban due to take effect Thursday that will likely force patients to travel hundreds of miles to receive care pending the clinic's relocation across the border to Minnesota.

Barring a judge's intervention, the Red River Women's Clinic will provide abortion services Wednesday then shut down. Owner Tammi Kromenaker is building a new clinic in Moorhead, Minnesota, with the aid of nearly $1 million raised through GoFundMe.

Kromenaker has not said when the new clinic will open and she did not respond to messages Tuesday. Planned Parenthood has said it can perform abortions at its own Moorhead facility to fill the gap if needed, but it is not clear if that will happen.

Once North Dakota’s ban takes effect, the nearest abortion clinics will be in Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota, a drive of about four hours from Fargo, and in Billings, Montana, which is nearly four hours from North Dakota’s western border.

Destini Spaeth, the volunteer leader of an independent group that helps fund abortions in North Dakota, is investigating temporary solutions until the Moorhead clinic opens. That could include helping to pay for trips to Minnesota and Montana.

“To have to cross state lines and to be treated like and spoken about like a criminal in your home state and forced to travel elsewhere, pleading for care, desperate for care,” said Spaeth, spokeswoman for the North Dakota Women In Need fund. “It's got to be just so traumatic.”

Kristi Wolff, executive director of the North Dakota Women's Network, said the women's advocacy group still refers people to the Red River Women's Clinic or to a physician “if that's what's needed.” Wolff said she has...