The head of a state pro-life group said last week that “Republican leaders lost sight of what is truly at stake—the lives of innocent human beings.”
The group also said that they spent a lot of money in the 2011 legislative session and appealed for donations.
On Monday, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion lobby, stepped up its efforts to get a bans on abortion and funding for certain types of stem cell research included in budget negotiations aimed at ending the state shutdown. In an email alert to supporters, the group claimed that taxpayers “will be forced to pay for cloning” and urged members to contact legislators.
A budget agreement being hammered out by Gov. Mark Dayton and Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature aimed at ending a state government shutdown came under fire from the state’s largest anti-abortion group over the weekend. Dayton and Republicans made an agreement late last week to resolve Minnesota’s budget impasse, in part by avoiding controversial social issues such as abortion and focusing on fiscal matters. A representative for Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life told reporters that he now questions the pro-life credentials of GOP leaders and told Republican legislators to vote no on any budget agreement that does not ban abortion.
Republican lawmakers and anti–abortion rights group Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life are pushing a ban on abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy and after conception, citing a medical and scientific “consensus” that fetuses feel pain at 20 weeks. But according to statements and research from leaders in the medical and scientific communities, no such consensus exists. In fact, researchers continue to debate whether fetuses feel pain at 20 weeks or at much later stages.
A pair of anti-abortion rights bill are moving through the Minnesota House and Senate this week. On Tuesday, a Senate committee passed a bill to ban abortion at 20 weeks gestation. And in the House and Senate a bill to ban taxpayer funding for abortion was passed out of committee. It was clear from testimony on both sides of the debate that Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life and Republican lawmakers are seeking a high-profile lawsuit on the issue of abortion, and the bill to ban taxpayer funding for abortion is structured so that a challenge would go directly to the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Proposed bans on somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), a technique used in some forms of stem cell research, continue to wind their way through the legislative process as the debate over the provision has spread to the pages of newspapers statewide, mostly in opposition to the ban. Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) has vociferously defended the ban and has attacked reporters it says have not gotten the facts right.
Sen. Michelle Fischbach, R-Paynesville, is adamant that a certain kind of stem cell research be banned. Her bill to criminalize somatic cell nuclear transfer was included in the health and human services omnibus bill currently under debate in the Senate, and she was successful in getting a weaker ban included in the higher education omnibus bill. The proposal has sparked a heated debate about whether the bill — and the testimony surrounding it — is misleading to the public on the topic of embryonic stem cell research. Republicans, however, have rejected an effort to clarify the debate.
A bill in the Minnesota Legislature that would ban some forms of stem cell research could have unintended consequences for patients and researchers if it becomes law. The Human Cloning Prohibition Act could cost the Minnesota biotech industry millions in lost research dollars and sales, and the bill could potentially turn certain stem cell patients into criminals if they return to Minnesota after receiving certain treatments outside the state.
After two days of testimony, a pair of anti-abortion rights bills passed key committees in the Minnesota House this week, one to ban abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy and another to ban taxpayer funding for abortions. Religious leaders came down on both sides of the issue, while legal and medical experts said the bills were poor policy. In the Senate, yet another bill to ban abortion at 20 weeks was introduced on Thursday bringing the total bills in the legislature to curtail abortion rights to nine so far this session.
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