May 20, 2024 | Press Release
ST. PAUL — The Minnesota legislature last night failed to approve a deceptive measure to put the so-called Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) on the ballot in 2026. The House passed the bill (SF 37) early Sunday, but the Senate did not take it up before the midnight deadline. The proposed ERA, if ratified by voters, would enshrine a policy of unlimited abortion in the Minnesota Constitution, but the language presented to Minnesotans on the ballot would say nothing about the issue.
“Minnesotans all across the state have been telling their legislators: We don’t want abortion-up-to-birth permanently mandated by our Constitution,” said MCCL Co-Executive Director Cathy Blaeser. “Nor do we want you to deceive us about what you’re really trying to do. Polls show that most Minnesotans don't want abortion added to the ERA, and most don't want unlimited abortion. This ERA isn’t about equal rights at all. It’s extreme, exclusionary, and dishonest.”
A new KSTP/SurveyUSA poll found that 64 percent of Minnesotans want abortion considered separately from the ERA. Two earlier polls—a Star Tribune/MPR News/KARE 11 poll and a KSTP/SurveyUSA poll—both found that just 30 percent of Minnesotans favor abortion without limits, the current policy that the ERA would enshrine.
"MCCL has campaigned extensively in recent weeks to inform Minnesotans about our state's abortion-up-to-birth policy and the deceptive ERA," said Blaeser. "And we aren't going to stop. We're going to tell Minnesotans the truth, and Minnesotans are going to continue to make their voices heard."
The House, before passing SF 37 Sunday morning, rejected numerous amendments during a days-long debate, including amendments to protect rights based on age and religion (protections that the ERA excludes) and to add an abortion reference to the ballot language so that it matches what is put into the Constitution. All amendments were voted down by the DFL majority.
"The language that we are giving to the voters does not express to them that 'pregnancy' means 'abortion,'" said Rep. Anne Neu Brindley (R-North Branch) during the House debate. "They have no idea what they're actually voting on. They have no idea. This language is so dishonest. ... You [the DFL majority] are asking voters to change the Constitution of the state of Minnesota, and you are not telling them the truth about what the amendment actually does."
"This is, I have to imagine, the most consequential vote that I will ever take: The decision whether or not to put into the highest law of our land a repeal of civil rights for human beings," added Rep. Walter Hudson (R-Albertville). "I think it's worth contemplating, before we cast this vote, the gravity of ... declaring that ... any baby, at any stage of gestational development, simply does not matter."