This afternoon, Tammi Kromenaker must speak to her lawyers again. In the midst of a judicial imbroglio in the United States over the future of the abortion pill, this director of a Minnesota clinic, seasoned by years of fighting for the right to abortion, does not intend to let herself be defeated.
"It's a mess," she told AFP on Thursday in her office at the Red River Women's Clinic in the northern town of Moorhead. But "we will adapt, we will find a solution".
On April 7, a federal judge in Texas, known for his ultra-conservative positions, withdrew his marketing authorization for mifepristone throughout the United States, a new twist in the assault on the right to abortion in the States. -United.
The federal government appealed and an appeals court partially overturned the judge's decision, ensuring that the abortion pill remains authorized for the time being; but this court also reinstated restrictions on its use.
It is before the Supreme Court that the future of mifepristone should be played out: the Biden administration has announced that it will seize it.
A complex situation that has caused confusion among patients and uncertainty in clinics. Tammi Kromenaker has just received two new boxes of mifepristone and for the past few days, she explains, calls in the community to lawyers and researchers have multiplied.
"On almost every Zoom call or meeting I've been on, people have said that (the situation) could change as we speak, because there are so many changing elements and so many stakeholders," she says.
However, the clinic had recently picked up a cruising speed after tumultuous times, according to Tammi Kromenaker.
Because until last summer, the Red River Women's Clinic was based in Fargo, North Dakota, a short drive from its current location. It was the only clinic to perform abortions in this conservative state.
At the beginning of May 2022, when the media Politico published, on the basis of a leak, that the Supreme Court was preparing to annul the federal protection of the right to abortion and let the states legislate on the question, the news made the bomb effect.
Tammi Kromenaker, who had felt the tide turn even before this news shock, embarks on a frantic search for new premises, because North Dakota is one of the states with so-called "trigger laws", written to come into force automatically in the event of a change in case law.
She signed the papers for the new building in Moorhead on June 23, a day before the decision of the American legal temple, and moved a few weeks later to the more progressive Minnesota.
After legal reversals, abortion finally - and for now - remained legal in North Dakota, but Tammi Kromenaker doesn't regret leaving.
"People sometimes ask me (...) are you going to start a new clinic in North Dakota? and I say no, because now that we've spent time here, we're not going back to the Middle Age," she says.
Although Fargo and Moorhead are "one big community" straddling two states, the difference between the two cities "goes beyond day and night," she says, marveling at the support she received in Minnesota and saying she was rather confident in the legal outcome.
"I don't think mifepristone is going away anytime soon. Maybe it will be available with restrictions," she says.
And as an establishment accustomed to litigation, "we are able to turn around quickly", she assures.
At the end of the day on Thursday, after speaking with AFP, Tammi Kromenaker analyzed the situation with her lawyers in the light of the latest developments.
A Washington state judge having said that the mifepristone ruling does not apply to 17 states and the federal capital, "we are comfortable with providing mifepristone in Minnesota and we We will continue to provide as before," she said in a message.
Waiting to see who has the last word.
14/04/2023 15:31:21 - Moorhead (Etats-Unis) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
