On Thursday, the Minnesota State Senate voted 35-30 to reject two pro-life bills that had passed the State House the same day.
One bill would have ended taxpayer funding of abortion in the state, which forces residence to pay for 39 percent of all abortions in Minnesota. The other would have eliminated abortion facilities’ exemption from state requirements that all outpatient surgical centers be licensed by the state, as well as subjecting them to the same inspections as outpatient surgical centers.
Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life executive director Scott Fischbach described the bills as common-sense reforms: “Taxpayer funds should be used to benefit the people of Minnesota, not to kill unborn children and enrich the abortion industry,” and “At a very minimum, the state ought to ensure that abortion facilities offer a degree of safety to women and are not in violation of state law.”
As an example of why such regulations are needed, MCCL further notes that Whole Women’s Health, the abortion provider challenging Texas’s abortion regulations at the Supreme Court despite its own record of fines and disciplinary actions for health violations, has purchased and merged two abortion facilities in Minneapolis.
