Who are they leaving out ... and why?
Minnesota lawmakers are excluding vulnerable members of the human family. Here’s who they are excluding — and who is doing the excluding.
PREGNANT WOMEN
In 2023, the Minnesota legislature and Gov. Walz eliminated the Positive Alternatives program, which provided grants to support pregnant women and new mothers who need help and practical assistance. In addition, lawmakers and Walz repealed the Woman’s Right to Know informed consent law, which ensured that women receive basic factual information prior to undergoing abortion. They also repealed the requirement that only physicians perform abortion procedures. Now, without these longstanding laws, pregnant women are less supported, less empowered, and less protected.
VIABLE UNBORN BABIES
The Minnesota legislature and Gov. Walz enacted the PRO Act (HF 1), which created in state statute a “fundamental right” to abortion without any limits. Lawmakers and Walz also repealed a 1974 law that had previously limited abortion after viability (SF 2995). As a result of these changes, abortion is legal for any reason (not just health reasons) and at any time throughout pregnancy—including late in pregnancy when unborn children can feel pain. Viable unborn babies in Minnesota have no meaningful rights under the law and may be dismembered or poisoned to death for any reason.
NEWBORNS
Minnesota law now allows newborns to be set aside to die. Previously, the law guaranteed medically appropriate lifesaving treatment for infants who survive abortion. In 2023, though, the legislature and Gov. Tim Walz repealed the requirement that “reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice” be taken “to preserve the life and health of the born alive infant.” They replaced the requirement for lifesaving measures with a requirement for only “care” (which the bill’s author described as “comfort” care throughout committee discussions and floor debate). Moreover, the new law (SF 2995) no longer applies specifically to babies who survive abortion, but rather to all babies who are born alive. Under the new language, then, any viable infant could be denied lifesaving care and allowed to die. Babies born with disabilities, whose lives are often devalued, are especially at risk.
Lawmakers and Walz went even further by repealing the requirement that practitioners of abortion report cases of born-alive infants and the measures taken to care for them (five born-alive infants were reported in 2021, for example). Now, Minnesotans won’t know when babies are born alive and left to die.
PARENTS AND MINOR GIRLS
Because of a 2022 court ruling, Minnesota no longer requires that parents even be notified prior to an abortion on a minor girl. Some lawmakers have gone further by seeking to erase Minnesota’s parental notification law from the books and deny parents their right to know. But parental involvement helps support minors and protect girls caught in human trafficking (traffickers often use abortion to hide their victims). Girls are harmed when parents are taken out of the equation.
NURSING HOME PATIENTS
Nursing homes are consistently underfunded, leaving vulnerable patients too often without necessary care. In 2023, Minnesota House members voted against considering a measure to provide nursing homes with the funding they need. Watch: Rep. Anne Neu Brindley exposed the nursing home crisis on the House floor.
MINNESOTA VOTERS
In 2023, lawmakers and Walz repealed numerous parts of Minnesota's longstanding abortion reporting law. Now, the public will not know about reasons for abortion, babies who survive abortion, and more. The new law also delays the reporting date so that Minnesotans won't learn the latest abortion numbers—which will show the effect of the recent legal changes—until late in the year (after the 2024 election). Minnesota lawmakers are hiding important information and keeping Minnesota voters in the dark.