MCCL-backed bill would end injustice of forcing citizens to pay for killing of unborn
ST. PAUL — Taxpayer funded abortions would be banned under legislation introduced in both the Minnesota House and Senate today. The bills seek to end the injustice of forcing taxpayers to fund the killing of innocent unborn children.
"The killing of human beings in the womb is a great evil," said Scott Fischbach, Executive Director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL). "To force citizens who oppose abortion to pay for it only multiplies the wrong being done."
In the House, the taxpayer funded abortion ban is H.F. 201, authored by Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover. The Senate legislation, S.F. 103, is authored by Assistant Majority Leader Dave Thompson, R-Lakeville.
Minnesota taxpayers are forced to pay more than $1.5 million per year to fund elective abortions. According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, taxpayers paid $1,505,862 to the abortion industry for abortions in 2008 (latest figures). (The dollar amounts were even higher in 2006 and 2007.) Those funds paid for 3,754 abortions — approximately 99 percent of which were elective. Taxpayers paid for 29 percent of all abortions performed in the state in 2008. Minnesota taxpayers have paid more than $15 million for 50,000 abortions.
United States law does not require taxpayers to fund elective abortions. In 38 years of abortion jurisprudence, the U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled that the U.S. Constitution contains an entitlement to publicly financed abortion. Minnesota's requirement is even more extreme than the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions, which established abortion on demand.
Despite the state requirement, most Minnesota citizens do not believe that they should be forced to pay for elective abortions. Efforts to ban taxpayer funded abortions have had broad support throughout the state and across party lines for many years, but legislation has been repeatedly denied hearings by pro-abortion leadership in both the House and Senate.
"Like most Americans, most Minnesotans oppose taxpayer funded abortions, including many who consider themselves 'pro-choice,'" Fischbach said. "A ban is long overdue. MCCL urges lawmakers to right this wrong and vote with the will of the citizens of Minnesota to end taxpayer funded abortions."
