ABC suit filed in N. Dakota

On December 16, a young pro-life sidewalk counselor at an abortion clinic in Fargo, ND, Amy Jo Mattson, filed a lawsuit against the Red River Women’s clinic, one of two abortion clinics in Fargo. The basis of the lawsuit, filed in Cass County District Court, is the allegation that the abortion clinic hands potential clients a brochure which violates the state’s truth-in-advertising law.

The brochure reads in pertinent part: "Anti-abortion activists claim that having an abortion increases the risk of developing breast cancer and endangers future childbearing. None of these claims are supported by medical research or established medical organizations" (boldface and underlining original).

This obviously false claim was apparently abstracted from the website of the National Abortion Federation, to whom inquiries were referred by Tammi Kromenaker, the director of the clinic. The NAF’s website does indeed disparage the ABC link (just as the NCI’s website does), but it also acknowledges that the "well done" Daling study did report 50% increased risk of breast cancer in women who had had an abortion.

The plaintiff will be ably represented by John Kindley, author of the authoritative legal paper on ABC link litigation 18, and I have accepted the offer to serve as plaintiff’s expert witness.

Importantly, the relief sought by Mattson is not for some big money settlement. She just wants the state to force the clinic to stop telling lies about the ABC link. So do I.

-JB