As states continue to choose sides in the abortion issue following the demise of Roe v. Wade, Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz signed a bill into law Tuesday enshrining abortion as a “fundamental right.” The law — which Republicans have called the most extreme in the nation — allows abortion without restriction right up until birth.
While other blue states have visibly scrambled to protect and expand abortion since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs overturned Roe, none have gone so far as Minnesota. Not only is it the most extreme abortion law in the nation, but it is also the first post-Dobbs law in the nation to codify a woman’s “right” to kill her unborn child.
Fox News reports that on Saturday, the law — craftily titled “The Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act” — “passed the state Senate 34-33, after Republicans had unsuccessfully tried to amend the bill 35 times.” The House previously passed the bill by 69-65. All but one Democratic legislator voted in favor of the bill, while no Republicans voted for it. So, while Democrats in Minnesota and elsewhere across the nation pretend that the passage of this bill signifies “the will of the people,” the reality is that a grasping group of extremist Democrats managed to squeeze a narrow victory that will assure that the murder of unborn humans not only will continue, but will increase.
In an obvious effort to tick off as many liberal boxes as possible, the bill avoids referring to pregnant “women” — opting instead for the preferred Left-speak “gender-neutral” phrase “individual who becomes pregnant,” stating:
Every individual who becomes pregnant has a fundamental right to continue the pregnancy and give birth, or obtain an abortion, and to make autonomous decisions about how to exercise this fundamental right.
In fact, the text of the bill never once uses the words “woman,” “women,” or any other word to describe females. The bill is as “woke” as it is extreme. Not only does it avoid the sticky widget of the simple biological fact that men are men and women are women, it grossly expands abortion in Minnesota.
Jennifer McEwen — the Democratic state senator from Duluth who authored the bill — claimed that the purpose of the bill was merely to prevent “what happened at the federal level with our U.S. Supreme Court” overturning Roe from happening “in some future time … here in Minnesota.”
A 1995 decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court — in Doe v. Gomez — guaranteed the “right” to abortion in the state, but in the wake of Dobbs, Democrats feared that decision could be reversed. By passing the PRO Act, Minnesota Democrats have added an additional barrier to that possibility. With abortion codified as a “right” in state law, no state court — not even the Minnesota Supreme Court — would be able to decide against abortion. Minnesota would have to go solidly red — with Republicans holding both houses of the Legislature and the governorship — to begin the process of repealing the law and reversing the court’s previous decision.
The PRO Act was heavily backed by the abortion lobby in Minnesota. Dr. Sarah Traxler, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood North Central States, issued a statement praising the bill’s passage, stating, “The PRO Act solidifies Minnesotans’ human rights into state law and is an insurance policy that our rights won’t be taken away by politicians or judges.” Dr. Traxler appears to have missed medical school classes on the days that human biology was taught, since she misses the connection between “human rights” and unborn humans. But, given that her income is tied to the murder of unborn humans, her lapse of logic is not surprising.
She went on to say, “All I want, and doctors across Minnesota want, is to provide the best care we can to our patients. And by passing the PRO Act into state law, the Minnesota Legislature will allow us to do just that.”
While it would be bad enough if the law only maintained the status quo of abortion in Minnesota, pro-life Republicans point out that the law actually expands abortion “rights” in the state. Fox News reports:
Opponents disagree, arguing the bill establishes a right to abortion up until the moment of birth. Republicans had attempted to amend the bill with “guard rails” that would restrict abortions in the third-trimester, but the newly-elected Democratic majority blocked their amendments.
“Today we are not just codifying Roe v. Wade or Doe v. Gomez, as the author has indicated, we are enacting the most extreme bill in the country,” said Republican Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, of East Grand Forks during debate.
Johnson is correct. “Every individual who becomes pregnant” includes minors. By an on-the-face reading of the text, a girl so young she can’t get a tattoo or a piercing without parental consent will be able to have an abortion without her parents even being informed, much less consulted. Furthermore, the text of the bill allows abortion for any reason at any time up until birth. So, a 13-year-old mother could decide to abort because of the baby’s sex and she could do so while in labor.
Two things are clear: (1) The first law in the nation codifying abortion in the wake of Dobbs is — by far — the most extreme abortion law in the nation, and (2) There is still much work to be done in the fight to protect the unborn in this nation. God speed the day when Americans will have finally consigned abortion to the trash heap of history and future generations will view this issue with the same confused embarrassment with which good people today look back at slavery.
