Minnesota looks to people today as a bastion of hard-left, liberal “progressivism.” But Minnesota used to have one of the strongest state pro-life organizations and multiple Minnesota Congressmen–Republicans and Democrats (Jim Oberstar, the state’s longest-serving Representative, was staunchly pro-life)—promoted the Human Life Amendment.
Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) is one of the strong Minnesota pro-life organizations that’s been in the fight for the long haul.
Cathy Blaeser, MCCL Co-Executive Director, spoke with Catholic World Report recently about the Tim Walz that Minnesota pro-lifers know and have serious concerns about.
CWR: Tim Walz has been Governor of Minnesota since 2019. During his first term, he faced a pro-life Republican Legislature. What was that term like?
Ms. Blaeser: During Governor Walz’s first term, Republican control of one chamber of the legislature prevented the worst anti-life legislation from passing.
Even so, Walz found ways to promote abortion and oppose life-affirming alternatives. He tried to partially defund the Positive Alternatives program that supports pregnant women with alternatives to abortion. (He was able later, in his second term, to repeal the whole law).
During the pandemic, he temporarily suspended all elective medical procedures but made an exception for elective abortion. His administration also gave nearly $100,000 in COVID funds to a group specializing in “abortion doulas” (people who encourage women during their abortions).
CWR: Democrats took over the Minnesota Legislature in 2022 and that led to a major pro-abortion push. What were some of the “highlights” of that legislative flood?
Ms. Blaeser: Walz signed into law the PRO (“Protect Reproductive Options”) Act in January 2023. It created a “fundamental right” to abortion in Minnesota law, with no limits at any stage of pregnancy.
Walz also signed into a law a large bill repealing numerous commonsense and longstanding abortion policies. Among other things, it repealed Minnesota’s Positive Alternatives Act supporting pregnant women, the Woman’s Right to Know informed consent law, and a requirement that only doctors may perform abortion. It also repealed protection for newborn babies, which I’ll discuss separately. And it repealed parts of Minnesota’s longstanding abortion reporting law.
Now, the public will not know numbers about complications women suffer, how many 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).
CWR: Late-term abortions not infrequently result in a child being born alive. Minnesota used to have a Born Child Protection Act mandating that such a baby’s life be protected since, after all, he’s now a U.S. citizen under the 14th Amendment. Walz gutted that. How?
Ms. Blaeser: Previously, Minnesota law guaranteed medically appropriate lifesaving treatment for infants who survive abortion.
In 2023, though, the legislature and Governor 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 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. They don’t want to say that out loud but, by manipulating the meaning and standard of “care,” they play a shell game doing just that.
CWR: The “Reproductive Freedom Defense Act” immunizes Minnesota abortionists who practice their trade on women from other states. What if an abortionist botches the procedure? Can he be held accountable before another state’s court? What if an abortionist faces a minor female whose state of residence bans abortion without parental consent or notification? How would such a case be treated in Minnesota? Can a minor unilaterally consent to abortion?
Ms. Blaeser: The new law bars Minnesota from extraditing or helping enforce laws on abortion—so a minor girl can come to Minnesota to have an abortion. Minnesota would not honor a request from another state to extradite to that state’s court. But the new law would not limit a civil suit from another state for an action that would create a cause of action in Minnesota.
CWR: Before becoming governor, Walz represented Minnesota’s First Congressional District in Congress. During his Congressional tenure, he had a 100% Planned Parenthood rating, a 0% National Right to Life rating. Can you comment on his promotion of abortion during his Congressional career?
Ms. Blaeser: When Walz served in Congress, he repeatedly voted in favor of taxpayer funding of abortion. He repeatedly voted against protecting unborn children later in pregnancy when they can feel pain. He co-sponsored legislation that would invalidate nearly all state and federal limits on abortion.
And he voted against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would ensure that newborn babies who survive abortion be treated with the same degree of care as other babies born at the same age (so that they are not neglected, abandoned, or killed).
CWR: Where does Walz stand on euthanasia and “physician-assisted suicide?”
Ms. Blaeser: Walz has said that he’s “open” to the idea of legalizing assisted suicide, which would harm elderly, disabled, and medically vulnerable patients in our state.
But he’s also impacted those near the end of life with his other policies. During the pandemic, Walz allowed the transfer of COVID-infected patients back into long-term care centers, even centers with known infection-control problems, despite the risks to the most vulnerable patients. Under Walz, funding for nursing homes has been very inadequate despite a huge budget surplus and tax increases.
Walz has also sought to move Minnesota in the direction of a single-payer health care system that would inevitably lead to rationing and pressure to legalize assisted suicide.
And in 2023 he supported the creation of a health care affordability board with the power to impose spending caps that incentivize cuts in care to the most vulnerable patients (the Mayo Clinic helped stop the proposal by threatening to leave the state).
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“[A] health care affordability board”.
This says out loud what the assisted suicide/euthanasia lobby doesn’t want you to notice.
These leftie states have some puzzling anti life initiatives; they must huddle and come up their next best thing. Don’t help on adoption etc.. MI’s Whitmer wants the state to be a draw for women to have reproductive freedom – thus they’ll move here from Indiana for instance; billboards etc.. were deployed.
Critical thinking for sure!
Abortion is murder. No politician who supports abortion deserves his office. No voter who has demonstrated the same should be permitted to retain his voting privileges.
Media which perpetuates the fraud of “abortion rights” ought to be censored and their leadership forced out.
There is a video of Chris Cuomo at the DNC convention pointing up to the big shots’ reserved suites which he said were at least 500k apiece. (Yes – that’s two zeros before the comma)
Any mention of that by the MSM?
Not a peep
There were no big shots left in MI, the Repubs asked who was minding the store that week.
He was demoted by the National Guard and has since lied about this and other matters: “The Minnesota National Guard confirmed Wednesday that Gov. Tim Walz … was demoted and did not retire as a command sergeant major like he has claimed for years, including on his official gubernatorial biography.
While Walz temporarily held the title of command sergeant major he “retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, the Minnesota National Guard’s State Public Affairs Officer, told Just the News.”
During the pandemic, he temporarily suspended all elective medical procedures but made an exception for elective abortion. His administration also gave nearly $100,000 in COVID funds to a group specializing in “abortion doulas” (people who encourage women during their abortions).”
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I wonder what that encouragement looks like? It sounds pretty ghoulish.
🙁
In a nutshell, I’d say encouraging the expectant mother to go through with it even if there are doubts. Telling her she’ll get over it blah blah blah.
Don’t forget, NPR played the sounds of a MI abortion before the Prop 3 was voted on, and I guess when it was nearly over the woman asked, “did I do good?” There appears to be zero stigma attached.
That’s ghoulish indeed, knowall.
😣
Abortion doulas???? Some the the most twisted and disgusting stuff I have ever read. It remains to be seen if traditionally heavy Catholic voting blocks ( unions for example) will wake up and smell the coffee, or rubber stamp this creepy Dem duo by voting them into office. If they vote Dem, I hope they remember that a Catholic is considered equally culpable of sin if they assist in the sin of another ( such as voting them into office to support abortion). Also, after gathering the votes of union members working on the Keystone pipeline, the first thing the Dems did in the last election was to SHUT the pipeline down. The Union members lost their jobs. I hope that this election, their brains are in gear.
Walz is a fraud, nothing more than a male version of Kamala Harris. God save our country from these two abortionistic sadists.
These abortion advocates or as they now call it reproductive rights are not to be trusted. They are pure evil.
All you need to know about the task and purpose of today’s Democrat (Gimmiedat) Party is its historic refusal to acknowledge the helpless humanity disposed of in the “cause” of “reproductive rights”. What are we up to now, worldwide? Seventy-million?, Or is that just the U.S.? The Romans burned Carthage to ashes for far less.