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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.

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 [...]

Anti-abortion programs and opposition to human cloning fared well under the governor’s watchful eye toward the end of the legislative session — and that has earned Gov. Tim Pawlenty high marks from anti-abortion activists. But, despite those few successes, much of the agenda of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) went unfulfilled.

University of Minnesota researchers are reporting a major advance in the field of embryonic stem cell research that undercuts the anti-abortion movement’s — and Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s — chief argument against state funding for the research.

More than 3,000 anti-abortion activists gathered at the state capitol to hear Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Sen. Norm Coleman at the annual “March for Life.” But one group garnering more attention was Planned Parenthood. Only hours after an anti-abortion activist slammed his SUV into a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul, rally attendees held up signs condemning the reproductive health organization, and MCCL speakers called for the defunding of the group they called the “abortion industry.”

A reproductive health bill being considered in the Minnesota Legislature this year states that the government has no business interfering with the constitutionally protected privacy rights set forth in Roe v. Wade. While presumptive gubernatorial candidates Sens. John Marty and Tom Bakk are among the bill’s co-authors, staunchly pro-life Gov. Tim Pawlenty is unlikely to sign the bill should it get to his desk.

Rep. Erik Paulsen, who is running to replace the retiring Jim Ramstad in Minnesota’s Third Congressional District, is a Republican–but don’t tell anybody.

Throughout his 14-year tenure in the Minnesota Legislature, Paulsen has been one of the most consistent and avid Republican right voices on behalf of government-slashing and “family values” assaults on abortion rights, gay rights and education standards. Yet when Paulsen spoke at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul early this month, his campaign billed the site of the appearance as simply the “National Convention.” In fact, a glance of Paulsen’s campaign materials would leave a casual observer wondering what party the candidate is affiliated with.

I don’t often get up to Albertville.  It’s not that I have anything against the town; indeed, it seems like a nice little exurban community.  But when you live in Eagan, you don’t frequent the extreme northwest corner of the Twin Cities.  And yet Monday night I got in my car and headed off to [...]

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life has announced its “fall tour” for 2007, but if you live in the Twin Cities, you’d better plan ahead.

Though the tour will feature 50 sites throughout the state, none of those stops is located in Minneapolis or St. Paul, and only two — in West St. Paul on Oct. 23 [...]