Today the Minnesota Senate approved the MCCL-backed bill to license and inspect abortion facilities on a bipartisan 43-23 vote. It will soon be heard in the House. Learn more in the MCCL news release here. (All news releases are listed here.)
Also today, on an 80-48 vote, the House passed the MCCL-backed bill to prohibit "webcam abortions" by requiring a physician to be physically present when administering an RU486 chemical abortion. A vote is expected soon in the Senate. Read the news release here.
One clarification should be made. In response to the webcam abortion ban, WCCO reporter Pat Kessler tweeted: "MN House passes bill to require MD to be in the room when a woman takes emergency contraceptive." Others have also tweeted or re-tweeted this claim.
No, that's false. Kessler and the others are confusing RU486 (mifepristone) with contraception. (Kessler's tweet has since been corrected.) Contraception prevents conception (hence the name); RU486 is a nonsurgical method of abortion used through the first nine weeks of gestation (the FDA has only approved it for use through seven weeks, but Planned Parenthood administers it later than that). We are not talking about a contraceptive pill. We are talking about an abortion drug that causes the death of a rapidly-developing unborn human being; a second drug, misoprostol, is taken about two days later to induce contractions that expel the dead child.
More information about RU486 -- and how its health risks are exacerbated when it is dispensed via telemedicine -- is included in our brochure, available online here.
