- After more than three days at trial in state court, Judge Michael McGuire ruled in favor of a North Dakota abortion clinic that distributes information stating that abortion does not increase the risk of breast cancer. Ruling from the bench, Judge McGuire relied on trial testimony from leading epidemiology and endocrinology experts who confirmed the statements made in the clinic's brochures. The judge also asserted that it was reasonable for the clinic to rely on preeminent cancer research institutes, such as the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society, neither of which have concluded that there is an established link between abortion and breast cancer.
"The judge rejected the abortion-breast cancer scare tactic," said Linda Rosenthal, a staff attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights and lead counsel in the case. "This ruling should put to rest the unethical anti-choice tactic of using pseudo-science to harass abortion clinics and scare women," added Rosenthal.
An anti-abortion protestor had sued the clinic under the state's false advertising law in December 1999 to stop the Red River Women’s Clinic from distributing its own pamphlets on abortion, claiming that the clinic’s pamphlets provided misleading information to patients. In crafting its brochure, the clinic relied on scientific data provided by the National Cancer Institute and the National Abortion Federation. The plaintiff, who was never a patient of the clinic, had not seen the clinic’s brochures until over a year after she started her suit. She had been a self-ordained "sidewalk counselor" distributing pamphlets to scare women from obtaining abortions by linking abortion and breast cancer.
Earlier this month, a judge in California dismissed a lawsuit of a similar nature that was filed against the Planned Parenthood of San Diego by the same attorney who filed the Fargo case. That case did not reach the trial level.
Defendants in Amy Jo Mattson v. MKB Management Corp. d/b/a Red River Women’s Clinic are represented by Linda Rosenthal and Janet Crepps of the Center for Reproductive Rights, along with local counsel Joseph A. Turman of Demars & Turman, Ltd. in Fargo, North Dakota.
