BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota’s lone abortion clinic is on pace to end the year with the fewest number of pregnancy-ending procedures recorded in more than a decade, a drop the facility’s director attributes in part to new legislation she says has confused some women into thinking abortion in the state is now outlawed.
Tammi Kromenaker, director of the Red River Women’s Clinic in downtown Fargo, said the clinic is expected to end the year having conducted about 1,125 abortions — around a 15 percent drop from the 1,330 in 2012.
But state Representative Bette Grande, an ardent opponent of abortion, said the decline in the number of abortions is a positive thing. She sponsored legislation this year aimed at limiting abortions, including a measure that bans them when a fetal heartbeat is detected — as early as six weeks into pregnancy.