As law enforcement in Minnesota searched desperately for the man who shot two members of the state legislature and their spouses on Saturday, Amy Hagstrom Miller found out the shooter was carrying a target list that included abortion providers and advocates.
The president and founder of Whole Woman’s Health didn’t know if the national organization’s Minnesota abortion clinic in Bloomington, just 30 minutes south of where police last saw the shooter, was on the list. She hadn’t heard anything from law enforcement and pieced together what was happening from news reports and the rapidly churning rumor mill.
“I immediately freaked out because [the Bloomington clinic] was open at the time, and we were actively seeing patients. My staff and doctor and patients were on site,” Hagstrom Miller recalled to HuffPost on Monday.
“Whole Woman’s Health is very well known,” she added. “We had to operate from the assumption that we were listed or that we could be.”
Before the suspect was ultimately arrested, abortion clinic workers and advocates around the state endured a tense and stressful 36 hours. Providers and staff at the state’s 13 abortion clinics had no idea if they were next.
