Abortion

While abortion politics dominated conservative opposition to the health care reform package that barely passed the U.S. House on Saturday evening, several measures in the bill that are beneficial to LGBT Americans largely went unnoticed — especially by conservatives.

Minnesota’s largest anti-abortion group, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, is vigorously opposing all of the health reform proposals being offered by Democrats in Congress — and it’s not just about abortion. Several Republican talking points have crept into the group’s campaign, and most of them have been debunked by the very fact-checkers the group uses [...]

On the House floor Wednesday night, Rep. Michele Bachmann warned that the health insurance reform package currently being debated by Congress would set up “sex clinics” in schools where students “taken away” to have abortions.

In the Bizarro Land that is modern American politics, all is turned upside-down. Conservatives are toting dog-eared copies of “Rules for Radicals” by the late lefty Saul Alinsky, Jon Stewart has dubbed Fox News the “new liberals,” and — wait for it — Michele Bachmann, a vehement abortion opponent, is telling the government to keep [...]

With more than a year to go until the general election, abortion is already becoming an issue in the 6th Congressional District race. An analysis of anti-abortion campaign donations finds that Rep. Michele Bachmann is one of the country’s top earners — and she’s delivered for her contributors on that issue. At the same time, local anti-abortion forces are already tarring DFL candidate Rep. Tarryl Clark just a day after she announced her candidacy.

Anti-abortion group Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life called on Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken to reverse their Senate Judiciary Committee votes to approve Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday. In a letter to the senators, MCCL said that a legal board that Sotomayor once sat on advocated abortion rights.

Health reform could be hijacked by anti-abortion politics despite efforts at compromise — and some of Minnesota’s Congress members are in the thick of the debate. Reps. James Oberstar, Collin Peterson and Michele Bachmann have all been working to gut reproductive health funding from the health reform package moving through the House.

Just as Sen. Al Franken began his opening statements during the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, a woman shouted “wrong about abortion!” and ran out of the hearing.
That woman was Norma McCorvey of Texas, otherwise known as “Jane Roe,” the central figure of the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade.

Reps. Jim Oberstar and Collin Peterson joined 17 other Democrats in threatening to vote against health care reform if a government plan covers abortion. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late last week, the coalition said, “[W]e cannot support any health care reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of [...]

The number of abortions performed in Minnesota declined in 2008 for the second straight year and marked the lowest number in more than 30 years. Reproductive health advocates said the decline is due to access to birth control and education, while the state’s largest anti-abortion group says programs to persuade pregnant woman from having an [...]