Minnesota Forum

Gov. Tim Walz does not support abortion up to the moment of birth, contrary to Jensen claim

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which for 50 years had guaranteed Americans the right to an abortion, has catapulted the issue into the forefront of the Minnesota governor’s race.

Likely Republican nominee Scott Jensen, who supports banning abortion, falsely said Gov. Tim Walz holds the view that abortion should be permitted “up-to-the-moment-of-birth.”

“Late term, nine month abortions championed by Tim Walz are not Minnesota values,” Jensen wrote in a statement in response to the Supreme Court decision.

Walz says he supports “maintaining the timelines outlined by current law.” In Minnesota, elective abortion is legal up to viability — or around 24 weeks — after which the procedure must be done in a hospital, if for example, the health or life of the mother were in danger.

According to pro-abortion rights and anti-abortion groups, Walz rejected nearly all anti-abortion bills during his time in the U.S. House from 2007 to 2018. This included bills to ban all abortions after 20 weeks.

The vast majority of abortions — about 93% — happen within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among the eight abortion providers in Minnesota, just one clinic in Minnesota provides abortions as late as 24 weeks into a pregnancy. In Minnesota in 2020, one person had an abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

“Jensen is lying about this issue to distract from his unpopular plan to ban abortion outright, including for victims of rape and incest,” Walz’s campaign manager Nicole Johnson said in a statement.

Jensen said he would try to ban abortion if elected, and doesn’t think there should be exceptions for rape or incest. The only exception Jensen says he supports is if the life of the mother is threatened.

“My view of life is it begins at conception,” Jensen told WCCO Radio.

Jensen wouldn’t be able to ban abortion if elected governor, even if he could get a GOP-controlled Legislature to go along. A 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court decision ruled that a person’s right to an abortion is enshrined in the Minnesota Constitution, so voters would have to vote to change the constitution.

However, the Legislature has enacted “informed consent” restrictions on abortion, which require women to wait 24 hours. State law also requires doctors to tell women medically dubious claims about the risks associated with the procedure, and that the father is liable to help pay the cost of raising a child.

Mn reformer

By KATHERINE HAMILTON - 1 Feb 2023

Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill on Tuesday which enshrines the “right” to abortion without limits, making the state the first in the nation to codify abortion via legislative action since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

“Last November, Minnesotans spoke loud and clear: They want their reproductive rights protected – not stripped away,” Walz said. “Today, we are delivering on our promise to put up a firewall against efforts to reverse reproductive freedom. No matter who sits on the Minnesota Supreme Court, this legislation will ensure Minnesotans have access to reproductive health care for generations to come. Here in Minnesota, your access to reproductive health care and your freedom to make your own health care decisions are preserved and protected.”



The bill, called H.F. 1 or the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act, was created to cement in state law the “right” to access reproductive health care options including abortion, birth control, family planning help, and sterilization.

Abortion was already legal in Minnesota through the second trimester. The bill’s author, Sen. Jennifer McEwen (D) said the bill enshrines abortion access, no matter what future courts decide.

“The decisions of our courts, the upholding of our fundamental human rights, are only as strong as the judges that uphold them,” McEwen said.

“We have a duty to answer the call of Minnesotans to truly protect those reproductive freedoms, to enshrine them not simply in case law, but in our statutory law,” she continued. “These are our values, this is the practice in Minnesota. This is what we believe.”

The state Senate voted 34-33 in favor of the bill on Saturday following 14 hours of debate. Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson lamented its passage at the time, calling it “the most extreme bill in the country regarding youth sterilization, late term abortions and public viability for a vast array of new reproductive rights.”

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) blasted law as “extreme, inhumane, and harmful to women and children who deserve so much better.”

“The PRO Act means a right to abort any baby for any reason at any time up to birth. It means that the elective killing of a human being in utero is perfectly legal even in the third trimester of pregnancy, when the child can feel excruciating pain and could live outside the womb. It means that parents have no right to know when their teenage daughter has been taken to undergo an abortion,” said MCCL Co-Executive Director Cathy Blaeser.

“Gov. Walz’s absolutist abortion policy puts Minnesota in the company of just a small handful of countries around the world, including North Korea and China. It is extreme, inhumane, and harmful to women and children who deserve so much better,” Blaeser continued.

MCCL pointed to a recent 2022 poll from KSTP/Survey USA showing that, contrary to Democrats’ radical abortion-on-demand agenda, only 30 percent of Minnesotans think abortion should always be legal. The pro-life group also noted that lawmakers “rejected dozens of amendments that would have made the bill less extreme,” including one protecting unborn babies in the third trimester (with exceptions), one barring partial-birth abortions, and one providing the option of anesthesia when unborn children can feel pain. Another proposed amendment would have required third-trimester abortions to take place in a hospital and would have required abortion facilities to be licensed by the state.

“This law doesn’t just allow late abortion for medical emergencies or hard cases,” Blaeser said. “It allows late abortion for any reason whatsoever, and it’s an open invitation to notorious late abortion practitioners to come to Minnesota to set up shop. Here in Minnesota, you don’t even need to be a doctor or have a licensed facility in order to perform abortions. The lack of guardrails to protect women and children is appalling.”


Breitbart