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Legislators Make Reproductive Rights Top Legislative Priority

The Minnesota Legislature makes codifying abortion rights, right to birth control top priority in 2023 legislative session

St. Paul, MN — Today, the House Health Committee announced their first committee hearing of the legislative session will be to hear the Protect Reproductive Options Act (PRO Act). By electing the first pro-choice trifecta in state history in November, Minnesotans made it clear that protecting reproductive freedom is imperative and urgent.

The PRO Act ensures that all Minnesotans are free to make their own reproductive health care decisions, not politicians or judges. This includes the right to contraception, the right to carry a pregnancy to term, the right to fertility treatment, and the right to an abortion.

Passage of the PRO Act would be a historic bill, solidifying Minnesota as a reproductive freedom haven in the upper Midwest. Codifying reproductive rights into law is the first step in protecting and expanding reproductive health care. Since the fall of Roe in June, 18 states across the US have banned abortion care.

Statement from Dr. Sarah Traxler, Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood North Central States:

“First and foremost, we have to protect and codify our rights into state law. We have to protect reproductive freedom in Minnesota, especially as our neighbors in the upper Midwest have banned abortion or are poised to do so.

Every day I sit across from my patients, and I see how unique and personal their reproductive health care decisions are. No two people are the same, and no two pregnancies are the same, which is why it is essential to protect all reproductive options for Minnesotans so that politicians or judges cannot ever make private reproductive rights decisions for other people. Judges and politicians do not belong in my exam room, and this bill will keep them out regardless of shifts in political winds or judicial overreach.

Since Roe was overturned, we’ve seen an increase in patients coming to Minnesota for abortion care. People are travelling from as far away as Louisiana and Texas, and as close as South Dakota and Wisconsin to get to Minnesota to get the care they need and deserve. Minnesotans should not have to travel hundreds of miles to get an abortion. It is unsafe, inhumane and completely outrageous. Minnesotans deserve to access abortion care in their home state, and they deserve to know they always will be able to.”

Founded in 1992, the Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization. As the advocacy and electoral arm of PPMNS, we mobilize supporters of all parties to defend and increase access to family planning services and fact based, medically accurate sexuality education. We work to inspire and engage citizens to take up the cause of reproductive health and rights through education, electoral activity, grassroots organizing and legislative advocacy.

 

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