North Dakota
North Dakota Senate votes down bill on parents' access to minor's medical exam rooms
BISMARCK — The North Dakota Senate struck down a bill on Thursday regarding parent or guardian access to the medical examination room of minors after an extensive and emotional floor debate.
House Bill 1450 would have clarified that a parent or guardian had “full and complete access” to the examination room of a minor in their care, and would have required health care facilities to post this information prominently for parents and guardians to see.
The bill would also have required that a health care provider give written notice to the parent or guardian of a minor before they ask the minor any questions. The notice would have informed parents and guardians of their right, and the minor’s right, to opt out of questions; whether the minor’s answers to questions will be shared with other people or recorded in any capacity; and a list of the topics of the questions that may be asked.
HB1450’s primary sponsor, Rep. SuAnn Olson, R-Baldwin, said a parent or guardian’s right to be in a medical examination room with their child already exists, but the bill sought to clarify it and ensured that health care providers informed parents and guardians of the right.
The measure garnered extensive opposition testimony in the Senate Human Services Committee from medical professionals, including representatives from Central Dakota Forensic Nurse Examiners, Rolette County Public Health, the North Dakota Hospital Association and the North Dakota Medical Association.
They said they were concerned the bill would “reinforce the power dynamics that perpetuate abuses,” and potentially conflict with North Dakota laws that allow minors to consent to their own health care in limited circumstances, such as instances of sexual assault, or when consent is implied due to a life-threatening situation that requires emergency examination and treatment.
According to the National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused by the age of 18 and of those, over 60% will be abused by a family member.
“How can a child be honest if the person sitting next to them may be the biggest part of the problem?” The bill’s carrier Sen. Judy Lee, R-West Fargo, said. “Passing this bill will cripple the ability of health care providers to do what is right for their child and adolescent patients.”
The discussion on the Senate floor, which took over an hour, brought multiple senators to tears and prompted some to allude to their own experiences with abuse at home that they said would have prevented them from answering questions from medical professionals honestly had a parent or guardian been in the medical examination room.
“I stood on the doorstep in one of my early campaigns, I heard a child crying loudly in the house. Then I heard a male voice shout, ‘You quit crying or I’ll give you something to cry about,’” Sen. Dick Dever, R-Bismarck, said on the floor of the Senate.
“I knocked on the door. Immediately I heard only silence. I knocked again, there was no answer. Those sounds were familiar from my own childhood. I don’t know whether I am heaven-bound because my mother shared the love of Christ with my three brothers and me or because my father beat the hell out of us. Both were true … If I had been questioned in this kind of circumstance (in a medical examination room), my responses would have been different with my father in the room than without him.”
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
The bill does specify that it does not apply to legally emancipated minors or in instances of suspected physical or sexual abuse when a provider has documented the concern and notified the appropriate authorities. However, Sen. Kristin Roers, R-Fargo, said this is not specific enough and leaves a grey area for medical professionals to have to navigate.
“I am a mandated reporter as a nurse,” Roers said. “When do we consider something a suspected case of abuse? Is it when I saw a bruise, or once I’ve had a chance to find out that it wasn’t from falling off the jungle gym, but because their dad hit them? When? Where’s the line? This doesn’t define that. How can I ask the questions and actually get at the root of that?”
“I was one of those girls who was abused,” she continued. “Not by my parents, really, and I never told my parents until I was an adult. And I just wonder, would I be in a different situation if someone had asked me the right questions? I never would have answered them correctly if my parents were in the room. But would I have, if I had been there alone?”
Sen. Janne Myrdal, R-Edinburg, said she respected those who shared their stories in the chamber but, “sometimes a sad story makes for bad law.”
She said there were stories on both sides of the issue and shared a story she said was from a constituent about their 12-year-old daughter being “pushed” by a nurse practitioner to get on the birth control pill during a sports physical. She said the nurse practitioner had attempted to speak with her constituent’s daughter privately but the constituent refused to let them, and when the nurse practitioner continued to push on the topic of birth control, the constituent took their daughter and left the medical examination.
“The reason these bills are before us today is because of vaccinations,” Myrdal said. “Should a child be vaccinated without a parent’s permission? I certainly don’t think so. And also the transgender issue — I mean let’s be honest here, that’s why this bill is before us — where we read stories of teachers or … health providers taking a child and agreeing to help them (transition) and not tell their parents.”
Other senators who spoke in support of the bill said parents were responsible for the protection of their children and brought up stories about children being asked questions that they felt were inappropriate by medical professionals during examinations and about physicians abusing children under the guise of medical examinations.
Sen. Kent Weston, R-Sarles, read from a handout of stories that he said happened to North Dakota legislators.
“’My 13-year-old son went for a sports physical. The doctor asked him if he was sexually active and offered him condoms. What does that have to do with playing basketball?’” Weston said. “This was a personal friend of mine that, while she was 17, (she said) ‘While I was lying on the exam table, my doctor gave me — a teenager at the time — advice as what best placement for my hips during sex (was).’”
Weston said 99% of doctors were “fantastic” and that he was not bashing doctors, but that in all professions there were good and bad people. He said that the fundamental right belongs to the parents.
“We need to give parental rights and then get after the bad actors,” Weston said. “That’s how we deal with this.”
Multiple senators said the bill had them conflicted about which way to vote. An amendment was offered on the floor that some said would have moved the bill “in the right direction” but it was voted down in a narrow 26-21 vote.
The bill previously passed the House with a 72-15 vote but came out of the Senate Human Services Committee without a recommendation. The Senate voted the bill down in a 29-18 vote.
GRAND FORKS — A North Dakota composer’s dream is turning into a statewide invitation.
Williston-based musician Emily Black-Driscoll was chosen as the North Dakota Music Teachers Association’s commissioned composer for 2026. She’s preparing an original composition that will premiere in August.
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North Dakota
Challengers declare victory after ND Supreme Court rules against Legislature’s attempt to alter term limits
BISMARCK — A constitutional ballot measure to amend the state’s term limits law as proposed by the Legislature will not appear on November’s ballot, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday, siding with petitioners who argued the Legislature exceeded its authority and violated the state constitution in proposing the changes.
“The people’s voice was heard,” Grand Forks County Commissioner Terry Bjerke said in reaction to the news.
Bjerke was a member of the sponsoring committee behind the successful 2022 effort to pass a term limits initiative, which amended the state constitution by capping legislative term limits to eight years in the House and eight years in the Senate. The amendment, which became article XV of the state constitution, also included a clause barring the Legislature from making constitutional changes to term limits.
During the 2025 session, however, lawmakers narrowly approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 4008, in which the legislature proposed Constitutional Measure 1, a ballot measure to amend the term limits language to allow legislators to decide in which chamber they want to serve their 16 years, and to repeal the clause limiting the legislative assembly’s authority to propose an amendment to alter or repeal term limits.
Bjerke and former Minot legislator Oley Larsen brought the lawsuit challenging the validity of the Legislature’s action in January, and the state Supreme Court
heard oral arguments in the case
this spring.
“Those term limits may only be altered by a measure proposed by the people rather than the Legislative Assembly. And yet a few years later, the Legislative Assembly is doing what they are prohibited from doing,” attorney Zachary Wallen argued on Bjerke and Larsen’s behalf.
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
The Legislature’s attorneys argued the clause prohibiting legislative proposals to alter the constitutional term limits language “infringes on our republican form of government” by “limiting the people’s ability to vote on amendments proposed by their elected officials.”
Justice Jon Jensen seemed skeptical of that argument during the April 2 hearing, questioning whether a second vote was appropriate.
“The public did speak on this. The public spoke on it when it passed the original constitutional amendment and they said, ‘Legislature, you don’t even get to propose a change.’ They have already spoken on it,” Jensen said. “You want a second shot, or a second bite at the apple, not a first one, a second.”
In Thursday’s ruling, all five justices sided with Bjerke and Larsen.
“We … conclude the Legislative Assembly’s adoption of S.C.R. 4008 violated N.D. Const. art. XV … and declare S.C.R. 4008 and Constitutional Measure 1 void … We enjoin the Secretary of State from placing Constitutional Measure 1 on the November 2026 general election ballot,” the ruling said.
Bjerke thanked the legal team that worked on behalf of their lawsuit, and said he was grateful the court reached the conclusion it did.
“I’m thrilled that what the people voted on and approved has been validated,” Bjerke said.
He added that the Legislature had “multiple opportunities” to address term limits prior to 2022’s initiated measure and chose not to, and gave a nod to the country’s coming milestone and the process by which voters expressed their support for term limits.
“We’ve lasted 250 years,” Bjerke said. “I have two words for those elected leaders who think they aren’t: everyone’s replaceable.”
North Dakota
Fargo woman convicted in North Dakota fraud case now faces charges in Minnesota: A deeper dive
FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – A North Dakota woman who was sentenced to 180 days in jail in Cass County for defrauding healthcare providers and Medicaid programs is now facing additional fraud charges in Minnesota.
Christine Marie Pryor, 55, pleaded guilty in November 2024 to theft by deception involving more than $50,000. She was sentenced to first serve 180 days with a 3-year sentence suspended. She received credit for 44 days already served.
Pryor was ordered to pay $82,584.78 in restitution to Southeast Human Services in Fargo, where she worked between 2018 and 2019.
How the scheme unfolded
According to court documents, Pryor worked at multiple healthcare facilities in North Dakota and Minnesota between 2018 and 2023, using the identities and credentials of three licensed professionals without their knowledge. She submitted fraudulent Capella University diplomas and transcripts to gain employment.
Investigators say Pryor admitted she searched state licensing websites for therapists who shared her first name, then used those therapists’ last names and license numbers when applying for jobs.
At Southeast Human Services, where she worked as a Licensed Addiction Counselor, Pryor earned $55,584.82 while providing therapy services to approximately 150 patients. She also opened her own counseling center, NIAM Brain Injury Center, in Fargo between 2020 and 2021, and worked at The Lotus Center in Moorhead, Minnesota, from 2021 to 2023.
Court documents say the three licensed professionals whose identities were used told investigators they had no knowledge of Pryor’s actions and did not give her permission to use their information.
Two additional charges against Pryor in North Dakota, unauthorized use of personal identifying information, were dismissed on motion of the state.
Additional charges in Minnesota
Pryor is also facing charges in Minnesota. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Tuesday charges against Pryor in Clay County District Court for six theft offenses and six identity theft offenses related to defrauding Minnesota’s Medicaid program of more than $150,000.
According to the Minnesota complaint, Pryor claimed to provide psychotherapy and alcohol and drug counseling services to Medicaid recipients despite having no license or credentials to do so. Prosecutors allege she used the credentials and identities of three licensed professionals while claiming to provide Medicaid-funded services to 169 clients.
The Minnesota charges were filed as part of National Health Care Fraud Takedown Day, a joint effort involving the Department of Justice and more than 40 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
Copyright 2026 KVLY. All rights reserved.
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