Democrats codify right to abortion in L’Étoile du Nord
At the Minnesota State Capitol, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. Photo by Myotus via Wikimedia Commons.
It’s surprising that this isn’t getting more notice (The New Republic):
One day after the Republican National Committee directed Republicans to “go on offense” against abortion rights, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed a bill codifying abortion rights as a guaranteed right to Minnesotans. The legislation will shield residents from any looming Republican attacks, even those that come from the courts.
The Protect Reproductive Options Act, or PRO Act, codifies protections to reproductive health care, including abortion, birth control, sterilization, and family planning and fertility services. The act, just a page long, guarantees that “every individual has a fundamental right to make autonomous decisions about the individual’s own reproductive health.”
The new law comes as Minnesota Democrats now lead all three chambers of the government, as they maintained the state House and governorship, and took control of the state Senate in November. In a midterm election partially defined by backlash against the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the new narrow majority poetically codified abortion rights into state statutes.
Minnesota is the first state to enact abortion protections this year.
Upon signing the bill into law, Walz said:
“We’re sending a message today that’s very clear: Your rights are respected in this state,” Walz said. “You make your final decisions about your health, your family and your life.”
AP adds some background:
Abortion rights were already protected under a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court decision known as Doe v. Gomez, which held that the state Constitution protects abortion rights. And a district court judge last summer declared unconstitutional several restrictions that previous Legislatures had put in place, including a 24-hour waiting period and a parental notification requirement for minors.
But the new law adds an extra layer of safety should the composition of Minnesota’s courts change. Other protections are in legislative process, including a bill to repeal a stautory restriction a district court ruled unconstitutional last summer.
State Senate and House GOP leaders call the bill “dangerous” and “extreme,” naturally. All Republicans voted against the bill.
Reactionary conservatives are fighting a cultural civil war against modernity, one with fascist notes. Whether it’s women’s rights, voting rights, public education, immigration, religion, etc., their goal (and right-wing punditry’s business model) is to get and keep people angry. Angry at anything “woke” (whatever that means), angry at liberals, at city-dwellers, at non-whites, at “elites,” at Democrats, at the rule of law when applied to any of their tribe. At M&Ms. Economic winds that blow their way won’t change that despite Democrats’ best efforts to address industrial decay in MAGA country.
Just as it’s wishful thinking for Republicans to wait for Trump to die or face criminal charges, it is unhelpful for the left to wait for the angrified MAGA generation to die off or burn out from exhaustion. They are addicted to their daily outrage fix. I’ve watched the anger industrial complex since the heyday of pass-it-on emails over a decade and a half ago. They’ve gotten more extreme, not less, and show no signs of burning out or fading away. Their leaders have become more machiavellian if not mussolinian.
Minnesota has rejected appeasment for direct confrontation. Democrats in other states should follow its lead.