The Minnesota state senate passed an abortion rights bill that guarantees a right to an abortion up to the time of birth.
The bill, known as the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act, passed by a vote of 34-33 and now goes to Gov. Bill Walz’s desk. He has indicated he will sign it.
“Minnesotans don’t support elective third-trimester abortion. They just don’t. But that’s what this extreme bill entrenches in our state law: the right to abort any baby for any reason at any time up to birth,” said Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) Co-Executive Director Cathy Blaeser. “Under this bill, even babies who are old enough to live outside the womb and to feel excruciating pain have no protection from lethal violence. The extremism of H.F. 1 puts Minnesota in the same category as just a handful of countries around the world, including North Korea and China.”
H.F. 1, authored by Sen. Jennifer McEwen, would create a “fundamental right” to abortion and would allow abortions for any reason, even late in pregnancy. Since a fetus can feel pain as young as 20 weeks into gestation and no later than 28-30 weeks, some states have mandated anesthesia for babies to be aborted.
Minnesota has no such law.
LifeNews:
Many amendments that would have made H.F. 1 less extreme were voted down or thwarted. The defeated amendments included ones to protect unborn children in the third trimester (with exceptions), to protect against the barbaric procedure known as partial-birth abortion, to provide the option of anesthesia when unborn children can feel pain, and to protect women’s health by requiring that third-trimester abortions take place in a hospital.
Additional abortion-expanding bills have also been introduced at the Capitol. One bill, H.F. 91/S.F. 70, would repeal numerous abortion-related laws, including a law protecting newborns who survive abortion.
Backers of the bill claim it only legalizes what was already legal and will codify the “human right” to abortion into law.
“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,” said Dr. Sarah Traxler, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood North Central States.
“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,” she added in a statement.
That is surely an obfuscation of the meaning and intent of the Minnesota bill.
Fox News:
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.
If the backers of this bill are so sure of the moral rightness of their cause, why try to hide what the bill will do? Why the misdirection by Planned Parenthood?
The short answer: they know that if what this bill really does ever becomes generally known, there will be an outrage not only among pro-life advocates but among ordinary people as well, who will object to the legislature passing this barbarous bill in their name.
* Article from: PJ Media
