A life-affirming clinic in Minot marks its 10th anniversary with an expansion of an outreach clinic in Tioga.
To understand how the Dakota Hope Clinic was able to extend to rural North Dakota, it’s important to first understand how its mission began 10 years ago.
Nadia Smetana, director of the Dakota Hope Clinic, said the main clinic concept was seeded many years ago. A co-worker at Minot’s Trinity Hospitals who had moved to Minot from Oregon wanted to volunteer at a pregnancy help center and found the city had none. The two started talking and praying about it.
“We began to meet occasionally and pray about it. I knew there was a need for a pregnancy health center here in the Minot area. I had no idea how to start one. But we kept praying about it and met other people who had the same thing on their minds in the community and started to meet.”
A pregnancy help center is basically a clinic where women can go for advice and assistance, she said. “There is a lot of societal pressure now days for these women to choose abortion as an answer to an unplanned or unexpected pregnancy. Pregnancy help centers are places they can go to find the truth about all their options and be encouraged to choose life for their baby.”
Opening Minot clinic in 2013
Supporters found help from existing centers in the state like Fargo, Grand Forks and Park River. “We contacted them and talked, and things began to happen. It took several
years, but in 2012 we incorporated. We also found out about Heartbeat International which we affiliated with.”
Heartbeat International is a pregnancy help community in response to the spread of legalized abortion that stepped up to help women escape the pressure to abort their child.
"They gave us the book that took us step by step on how to start a pregnancy center. We followed those steps of Heartbeat, other centers and with community efforts, we
got what we needed for our non-profit status, found a place and opened our doors in September 2013 at 315 Main Street near Trinity Hospital Emergency,” she explained.
Smetana stresses it was a local grass roots effort and locally governed by a board. “The more people learned about it, the more people wanted to join our team. Someone anonymously gave us $100,000 in seed money and we had a couple of fundraising banquets before we opened our doors. That helped and we've been going since.”
Mission takes shape
Smetana said the Dakota Hope Clinic location was a former obstetrics clinic, so it didn't require much renovation work to make it useful and begin their simple and straightforward mission— for their clients to be fully informed of their options.
Smetana said they can't make decisions for people, but they can encourage clients to choose life. “That is a better choice for the baby, the woman and the father, too. We do talk to women who are interested in abortion. We talk to them about what abortion really is and about what their alternatives are.”
Ultrasounds often are a huge deterrent against abortion, said Smetana. “It's not a diagnostic ultrasound. It's just there to see if the baby is in the uterus and if it's viable and how far along [the pregnancy] is.”
This can really make a difference for a woman to see the life within her and it makes a difference in her choice, she said. “It's a window to the womb we often call it.”
She adds that they have seen that an ultrasound can really affect the father of the child when he sees the baby in the uterus. “It encourages the women to choose life.”
Only evidence-based information is given to clients at the Dakota Hope Clinic, said Smetana. “The medical information we offer them is fact-based, evidence based. Scaring people isn't our hope or our goal. We want to give people the facts.”
That material can come via brochures, written material and even sent to their phones. The clinic will take all the time a woman needs, according to Smetana. Fathers are always welcome, too.
Care after birth
“If they do choose life for their baby, we offer them long-term support. We have something called the ‘Earn While You Learn’ program.”
Video-based educational programs are offered on 400 topics like prenatal care, labor and delivery, parenting from newborn and growing to toddler. Each time a woman or a man completes a class, they can earn points towards free items for their baby at the clinic’s store called the baby boutique. They can get free diapers, clothes and toys and the things a baby needs.
Beyond the baby supplies, the human contact is essential. "Every time they come in, we can offer them someone to talk to, someone to encourage them like a nurse or advocate," added Smetana. All clinic services are free.
Staffing at the Dakota Hope main clinic in Minot includes three registered nurses (a fourth pending certification), a volunteer coordinator, assistant/receptionist and a development director who helps raise funds through events and donations.
A series of fundraisers keep Dakota Hope Clinic’s doors open. A major one is their annual banquet held each September featuring a national pro-life speaker. Dakota Hope's Festival of Trees is a two-day event in November with a live auction for decorated trees, a silent auction and a mix of other activities. On Giving Hearts Day, held annually in February, a generous donor gives $25,000 and challenges others to match or exceed that donation.
Services provided at Dakota Hope Clinic include free pregnancy testing, ultrasounds and consultations about options. “There is a lot of listening going on. What are your concerns? Do you feel you can provide for this child and their circumstances? We do a lot of listening to see where they are at.”
She notes many times they find the women think abortion is their only choice. “They don't feel equipped monetarily or emotionally to raise a child. So, we also do community referrals. Sometimes people come in and they are threatened with being homeless if they have this baby—the parents, the boyfriend or the husband don’t want anything to do with them if they have this baby," Smetana said. "That's a big threat. We can help them with that issue with a community referral."
Opening clinic in Tioga
Smetana said the Dakota Hope Clinic assisted 1,826 clients between 2013 and December 2022. This is the only such clinic in the northwestern part of the state and into eastern Montana so Dakota Hope clinic leaders decided to reach out to women in rural communities who could not find help nearby with a mini clinic in Tioga that opened last fall.
Mandy Crocker, a registered nurse and project nurse manager for the Minot and Tioga clinics, is leading the efforts for rural outreach. For many, driving a great distance to get education or a pregnancy test is challenging especially for those with limited funds.
“My role is to go to the surrounding areas and establish mini clinics. It is an extension of our Minot office in the rural communities,” she said. “Rural health is a challenge. Resources are limited when it comes to getting healthcare in the rural communities. So, for us to go to them is crucial."
The Tioga mini clinic of Dakota Hope provides pregnancy testing, limited OB ultrasound, “Earn While You Learn” and support groups for post-abortion recovery.
As of now, office hours are twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. They are also hoping to cover expanded hours with volunteers. Crocker said they are working on other expansions to rural communities like Bottineau and Garrison.
Being a nurse, Crocker will get the clinics up and running, provide nursing services and ultrasounds to clients as well as train volunteers. “We are reassuring them that we are here for them and offer them unconditional love. No matter where they come from, whatever background, whatever choices they’ve made, we’re here to support them in finding the resources to help.”
Nancy Carlson is the medical director for the Dakota Hope Clinic in Tioga and a family nurse practitioner at the Tioga Medical Center clinic. She takes care of pregnant women with uncomplicated pregnancies up to 25 weeks. Carlson said she was contacted by Smetana and a board member of Dakota Hope Clinic to help launch the mini clinic.
Carlson has been part of a group of people from Tioga who have been supporters of Dakota Hope for some time. She believes the Tioga location was chosen because of its geographic location—90 miles from Minot and 50 miles from Williston. There is currently no pregnancy help clinic in Williston. There’s one in neighboring Sidney, Mont., but that’s a long distance to travel.
Carlson lauds Corrinne Coughlin for landing a location at the former Zion Lutheran Church site and remodeling it for the mini clinic. The church was sold to another arm of its ministry and the space was made available to Dakota Hope. Coughlin and her husband facilitated the remodeling of the building to have a reception area, office, bathroom, exam room and another room for ultrasound.
Carlson is not a medical provider for Dakota Hope, but gives local medical support, approves policies and procedures for the life-affirming clinic. Carlson notes she is certified to prescribe an abortion reversal pill for medication abortions. The reversal drugs are safe, time-sensitive and must be used within 24 hours after the first abortion pill is taken, she said. She wants the word to get out there that women who change their mind must act fast, but it is accessible.
Although it’s not feasible to have a mini clinic in every rural town in central and northwestern North Dakota, Carlson and Crocker are making medical contacts in surrounding small towns to distribute pamphlets about the mini Dakota Hope Clinic.
Bringing the ultrasound to people in remote towns is also a possibility. Carlson said, “I see us throwing the ultrasound in the vehicle and heading out to where need is in some of the remote areas. Some of these people don’t have cars or they are afraid somebody will see them, or they are in an abusive situation. They don't have the resources to get to Tioga.”
Abortion advocates have used the false narrative that the pro-life clinics don’t support parents after the women have the babies. Carlson points to Dakota Hope proving this notion wrong.
“We do love these women. We want to help them in any way we can to have a successful pregnancy and to support them in whatever their choices are for adoption or raising the baby. We have all kinds of resources for that.
“I don't know how many abortion-minded people there are in these rural areas. I do know there are a lot of young women who are having trouble being pregnant because of their social situation, their economic situation that need support. That is the message that we really need to get out there: We love you; we support you. How can we help you?"
The Tioga location also has a baby boutique with supplies to choose as a reward for the clients to earn by taking educational courses.
Gauging success
Smetana says the program is a success in reaching intended clients. "We are serving who we set out to serve. Each year, at least half our clients are at risk of choosing abortion and around 80 percent of them choose life. There are always some we don't hear from again, so we don't know for sure what they did. But we have even heard from people a year or two later and ask if we’d want to meet their child. It's really gratifying when they bring their babies back. A vast majority are very satisfied with the services."
There’s also plans to expand Dakota Hope’s services. Smetana shared, “We want to offer more preventative services for young women and men to live a lifestyle, so they don’t have to face an unintended pregnancy or STDs—how to live and value themselves and their sexuality and the fertility they have and to guard and protect it.”
Dakota Hope Clinic welcomes client referrals as well as volunteers and donations. They also appreciate prayers from the faithful for the success of their life-affirming mission.
Visit dakotahope.org for more information. The client line number for Dakota Hope is 701-852-4673. The office line for donations or volunteering is 701-852-4675.