ST. PAUL — A lawsuit filed today in Ramsey County District Court challenges numerous abortion-related laws in Minnesota. The suit aims to overturn Minnesota's Woman's Right to Know law, parental notification law, and abortion reporting law, among others.
"This is a very extreme and far-reaching lawsuit," says MCCL Executive Director Scott Fischbach. "It targets reasonable and commonsense laws that have been in place for decades and that have helped thousands of people."
The lawsuit was brought by two abortion practitioners and the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis, who are represented by Gender Justice and The Lawyering Project. Among the Minnesota statutes it seeks to strike down are the following:
Woman's Right to Know, which ensures informed consent prior to abortion;
Parental notification, which ensures that parents are notified before a minor undergoes abortion;
Abortion data reporting, which ensures that basic data about abortion in Minnesota is collected;
Physician-only requirement, which requires that people who perform abortions be doctors;
Fetal disposal law, which requires that the remains of aborted children be treated in a dignified manner
"Women have a right to informed consent," says Fischbach. "Parents should be notified when their minor children are undergoing abortion. Minnesotans should know about how abortion is practiced in our state. Yet the lawsuit seeks to undermine all of this."
Fischbach concludes: "Minnesota's mainstream abortion laws are not inconsistent with the state Constitution. And they are supported by most Minnesotans. This extreme challenge should be rejected."