The following MCCL news release was issued today, Feb. 25.
ST. PAUL — A bill to eliminate all protections for unborn children and their mothers has been introduced in the Minnesota House of Representatives. If enacted, the measure would be the most extreme pro-abortion, rights-denying law the state has ever seen.
"House File 646 sets a new standard for pro-abortion extremism," said Scott Fischbach, Executive Director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL), the state's oldest and largest pro-life organization. "Under the guise of 'privacy,' a handful of legislators are seeking to increase the authority of abortion centers so that no teenage girl, unborn child or pregnant woman is safe."
H.F. 646 is authored by Rep. Jim Davnie, DFL-Minneapolis. The measure's five other co-authors all represent Twin Cities metro area districts.
Their legislation would eliminate Minnesota's protective parental notification law, which ensures that parents of minor girls are involved in their daughters' decision-making regarding abortion. Such a move would put the health of minor girls at greater risk. The state's parental notification law has been a major factor in the dramatic drop in abortions performed on teenage girls. Abortions performed on minors in 2009 dropped to their lowest point since 1975.
The bill's language parrots the tired demands of the abortion industry, which has opposed even the most modest protections for pregnant women and their unborn children. Women would be denied the right to factual informed consent information prior to undergoing an abortion procedure, keeping them in the dark about abortion risks, complications and alternatives. Pregnant women would not be told that their unborn child can feel pain at 20 weeks from conception, or that pain-reducing medication is available for their child prior to a brutal dismemberment abortion, for example.
H.F. 646 would also codify into state law the abortion industry's insistence that taxpayers fund elective abortions. Since 1995, Minnesotans have been forced to pay more than $15 million for 50,000 abortions because of a court ruling.
"This bill is clearly an attempt by the state's abortion industry to deny low-income and vulnerable pregnant women their right to know what abortion is and that there are life-giving alternatives," Fischbach said. "MCCL calls upon all state lawmakers to reject this attempt to deny women their right to informed consent prior to an abortion. Legislators are elected to uphold the will of the people — the majority of whom oppose abortion — not the radical agenda of abortion advocates."
MCCL is Minnesota's oldest and largest pro-life organization with more than 70,000 member families and 240 chapters across the state. For more information about MCCL, visit www.mccl.org.
