Scott Jensen's Running Mate Matt Birk Caught Condemning the Use of Birth Control

MINNESOTA - Today, a video surfaced of Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen's running mate, Matt Birk, speaking at a 2018 conference that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Humanae Vitae, a letter written by Pope Paul IV that condemns abortion and opposes the use of birth control.

"Matt Birk is a dangerous extremist with no regard for the freedom of Minnesotans to control their own bodies and lives," said Marissa Luna, Executive Director of Alliance for a Better Minnesota. "Scott Jensen and Matt Birk have repeatedly threatened to ban abortion in Minnesota and even previously said that they wanted to ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest. Jensen and Birk’s policy plans would be catastrophic for Minnesotans who deserve access to essential health care, which includes abortion and contraceptives."

In a 2018 video circulated by the American Independent, Birk praised the Catholic Church for its longstanding opposition to contraception and said, "so this whole Sexual Revolution, which was billed as this freedom, 'do whatever you want' — I don't know if it's a slow road to Hell. It seems like it might be a fast road to Hell, right? Because that's not what we were built for."

These aren’t the first extreme comments by Birk on reproductive freedom.

In a video from June 2022 of Matt Birk speaking at a National Right to Life conference, he celebrated the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, compared safe, legal abortion to slavery, and said, "women used to not be able to vote, now we let them drive." He also reiterated that he doesn't believe that rape victims should get able to get abortions and said that "if a woman is unexpectedly pregnant, she could be the answer to someone's prayer."

In the same speech, Matt Birk promised that he and Scott Jensen would work to pass laws that ban abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest. Scott Jensen defended Birk’s comments in an interview on WCCO and praised Matt Birk’s refusal to “back off” from his extreme anti-choice positions on abortion.

In an MPR interview in March 2022, Scott Jensen said that he would ban abortion in Minnesota without exceptions for rape or incest.

Jensen even said he’d throw a party after restricting access to abortion. In a video from a St.Thomas College Republicans meeting in December 2021, Scott Jensen said, "If I get a chance to sign a pro-life piece of legislation, we're not just going to sign it, we're going to have a party."

Scott Jensen has a long anti-choice record in the Minnesota Senate and supported legislation in 2017 with restrictive licensing guidelines for abortion facilities. And he voted to restrict access to abortions by defunding organizations that perform abortions and receive taxpayer funding.

Jensen also received a 100% rating from an extreme anti-choice organization, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life.

Scott Jensen and Matt Birk’s extreme stances on abortion are at odds with the sixty percent of Minnesota voters who say abortion should be legal in all or most cases and sixty-five percent who oppose new severe restrictions on abortion.