Minnesotans United for All Families announced this week that the coalition opposing a constitutional amendment that several prominent Republicans are joining with groups such as Planned Parenthood and the United Church of Christ to oppose the anti-gay marriage amendment that will come up for a vote on November’s ballot.

Last week, the leadership of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota approved a resolution opposing the amendment. Here’s the resolution:

Whereas, we envision and work toward a world in which people can embrace and pursue their own dreams.

Whereas, we believe that people should be free to make life’s most profound choices about health care, childbearing and relationships in harmony with their dreams.

Whereas, we believe that all people, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, have fundamental human rights that must be respected and responsibilities that must be exercised.

Whereas, we advocate an end to inequality and discrimination that are barriers to making private decisions regarding sexuality, reproduction and relationships.

Whereas, we support loving families in all of their relationship forms and we work to ensure that they are strong and secure.

Whereas, we believe that strong families are fundamental to strong and healthy communities

Whereas, the values of courage, dignity, freedom, and truth are core to our mission and our work.

Therefore let it be resolved: That Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota opposes the amendment to the Minnesota Constitution banning same-sex marriage and the legal recognition of same-sex couples.

In addition, the Mayflower Community Congregational UCC, the Minnesota AIDS Project and the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ all signed on to the Minnesotans United coalition.

On Thursday, the Log Cabin Republicans and Republicans Against the Minnesota Marriage Amendment officially joined Minnesotans United as well, and with them will be a number of prominent Republicans.

Rep. John Kriesel of Cottage Grove has signed on to the group’s steering committee. In addition, former gubernatorial candidate and Republican consultant Wheelock Whitney is joining the coalition, as well as Richard Painter who was Associate Counsel for President George W. Bush, former St. Paul Deputy Mayor under Norm Coleman Susan Kimberly and Dale Carpenter constitutional law professor at the University of Minnesota and who is a Republican.

A fund created by the South Dakota Legislature in 2005 to defend a controversial anti-abortion bill introduced that year is largely bankrolled by out-of-state donors, one of whom claims to own businesses that belong to Jesus, reports the Argus Leader.

The Life Protection Subfund was initially created in anticipation of legal challenges to a law that, among other provisions, requires a doctor to tell a woman who is about to have an abortion she “has an existing relationship with that unborn human being and that the relationship enjoys protection under the United States Constitution and under the laws of South Dakota.”

The law is being challenged by Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota. This month, an appeals court overturned the district court’s previous ruling that the “existing relationship” provision was unconstitutional but agreed to strike down another provision that required doctors to tell patients that women who have abortions are more likely to commit suicide.

Now the Subfund is being used to defend this year’s currently-blocked anti-abortion-rights bill that mandates a 72-hour waiting period for abortion seekers and requires counseling at a crisis pregnancy center. According to funding data provided to The American Independent by Paul Kinsman, commissioner of the South Dakota Bureau of Administration, which oversees the Protect Life Subfund, the fund currently contains $63,387.04.

About $12,000 of that $63,000 was carried over from 2006 donations ranging from $5 to $2,000, half of which were from South Dakota residents or companies. In total, South Dakotans paid for about two-thirds of what was in the fund in 2006.

As of Sept. 26, about $48,000 in donations have gone to the Subfund in 2011. Two-thirds of those donations have come from six other states: Colorado (two donations), Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, North Dakota (two donations) and Texas. The majority of those funds were donated by individuals, except for Patrick Davis Consulting in Colorado ($100), the Gerard Health Foundation LLC in Massachusetts ($2,500) and the North Dakota branch of the Knights of Columbus ($100).

The largest contribution – $25,000 — came from just one source, married couple Joseph and Cynthia Brinck.

From the Leader:

Only one Joe Brinck is listed in Ohio phone directories, and he is CEO of Stelter and Brinck LTD, a manufacturer of industrial process heat equipment and president of Superior Thermal Ltd., a manufacturer’s representative agency selling industrial-gas burners and controls, according to company websites.

Joe Brinck also is on the board of directors of an organization he founded, Ruah Woods. Its mission is to restore family and renew the culture using Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, according to the organization’s website.

Under Joe Brinck’s biography on the site, he states, “My businesses belong to Jesus, and we state so in our corporate minutes and our mission and vision statements. We use our businesses to evangelize our employees, customers and suppliers. We use the profits to support pro-life organizations.”

Even though the money in the Subfund does not come close to covering the state’s court costs -– according to the Argus Leader, the South Dakota attorney general’s office estimates legal challenges to this year’s anti-abortion-rights law could cost between $2 million and $4 million -– the attorney general has not dipped into the Subfund because of help from anti-abortion-rights organizations such as Alpha Center, a CPC in Sioux Falls. And even though the money has yet to be used, the existence of the fund remains controversial.

Tim Pawlenty has been touting his record of opposition to abortion and funding for Planned Parenthood, but this hard-line on abortion is somewhat new. One acquaintance of Pawlenty’s says that his “pro-life” stance is faked, and a report by Mother Jones on Thursday demonstrates that Pawlenty approved a “dizzying increase” in funds for Planned Parenthood and other family planning agencies — according to a local paper at the time — during his two terms as governor, as well as cutting abstinence-only programs.

In April, Pawlenty said funding for Planned Parenthood should end.

“Washington has a massive spending problem, and we need to set priorities,” he said. “Recent undercover videos show that employees of America’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, aided alleged human traffickers wishing to exploit young girls. Yet, they continue to receive significant taxpayer funding. That should come to an end.”

But it’s not just Planned Parenthood that Pawlenty wants to yank funding from. In a June interview with religious right radio host and lawyer Jordan Sekulow, Pawlenty said he wants to defund any organizations “that are involved in” abortions.

Sekulow asked him, “If you were president and Congress would pass a law in the House and Senate to de-fund Planned Parenthood, would you sign the law?”

Pawlenty responded:

“Yes. I have been strongly pro-life. In fact, the National Review Online, which is of course a conservative publication, did an article about the 2012 candidates and the headline was — the point of the article was — that, based on results and not just rhetoric, I’m the most pro-life candidate running in the race. And so I don’t think taxpayer money should be used to fund organizations that are involved in performing abortions. I think most Americans would agree with that and I strongly would agree with that and would lead those efforts. Beyond that, I’ve got a record of results in this area in Minnesota — having proposed and signed a Women’s Right to Know bill, having proposed and signed legislation on positive alternatives to abortion, a fetal pain bill, and much more. And the pro-life group in Minnesota — the leading one and all the other ones — have said I was the best governor in the modern history of the state on these issues.”

But a report from Mother Jones on Thursday questions Pawlenty’s anti-abortion bonafides.

Over the course of Pawlenty’s career as governor, he increased funding to family planning groups — including those that performed abortions or referred clients to clinics that performed abortions — from $3.8 million to $5 million.

Pawlenty also rejected abstinence-only sex education funding from the federal government in 2008 (though he asked for it back in 2010 as he geared up for a presidential campaign).

The reason for his shifting stance on funding for Planned Parenthood and other family planning organizations may have been revealed in an article by Shawn Lawrence Otto in MinnPost last week. Otto was mulling a run for state Senate in the late 1990s as a Republican and asked his friend Tim Pawlenty about campaigning. Pawlenty has some advice on abortion politics:

Pawlenty is a very talented guy, and I respected his opinion. His first question was, “What’s your position on choice?” I hadn’t ever been asked the question quite so pointedly. “You’ve got to take a stand on that first,” he said. “Well,” I said, “OK. I don’t like abortion; I think it’s a really tough personal decision, but not something the government should be getting into one way or the other, so I guess I’m pro-choice.”

He looked at me over his lunch and said, “Well personally, so am I, but here’s the thing. You’ve got to find a way to get your mind around the language of saying ‘pro-life.’ It’s in how you phrase it.”

I’ve since learned I’m not the only one Pawlenty has said this to.

At this weekend’s Faith & Freedom Conference in Washington, D.C., Rep. Michele Bachmann told attendees she was pleased that a constitutional amendment that would bar same-sex couples from marrying in Minnesota would be on the ballot in 2012.

Bachmann gained political notoriety in 2004 and 2005 when she aggressively pushed to have the amendment on the ballot even as Republicans were in the minority in the state Senate at the time. In her speech, Bachmann called for similar amendments in every state that does not yet have one. Bachmann said she was “at the tip of the spear” on the issue.

The Faith & Freedom Conference was put together by one-time associate of Jack Abramoff and former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed. The conference drew leaders from anti–gay rights and anti–abortion rights activists as well as a number of potential presidential candidates.

Bachmann spoke about her role in pushing the amendment in 2004.

“Others took that torch and they carried on and just a week ago last Saturday evening Minnesota finally passed the constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man, one woman,” she said. “And so Minnesota is the first state that has decided this issue will be on the ballot in 2012. The state of New Hampshire, I understand, will be taking this issue up as well and other states.”

She added, “This is the time.”

In addition to speaking on gay marriage bans, Bachmann took a swipe at Planned Parenthood. “We’re giving money to corrupt organizations like Planned Parenthood that is committing crimes and enabling young, minor girls. I don’t even want to talk about it because it is so disgusting. This organization has by their own records performed 324,008 abortions in 2008 and 2009, and that’s in addition to the trafficking of underage girls that has gone on under Planned Parenthood’s nose.”

Despite Bachmann’s claims, no evidence has surfaced that Planned Parenthood is involved in child trafficking. One employee was fired last year when undercover video by an anti–Planned Parenthood group showed an employee appearing to give advice to a fake pimp who said he was in control of minor girls.

Here’s a transcript of Bachmann remarks on the anti-gay marriage amendment:

There’s a lot of bad news that’s going on around the world but there’s a lot of good news that is going on in the world too and I want to talk to you about a few of those things.

When I was at the Minnesota State Senate, we had started a project not because we wanted to but because we were acting in response to an action by the Massachusetts judicial Supreme Court.

Does anyone remember the decision in 2003 that the court issued? They issued a decision that told the state legislature that the legislature had to pass a law in conformity with the will of the justices. Does anyone remember what that decision was about? Do you remember? It was about marriage. It had something to do with redefining marriage.

I had heard that in Minnesota and new it would come our way as well, and so i announced that I was going to introduce a constitutional amendment that would allow the people of Minnesota to vote on the laws that they live under, particularly the definition of marriage, whether marriage would be between one man and one women. And that’s a good concept.

People were, as you can imagine, this was the height of the controversy and I was at the tip of the spear on that effort and the reason I bring that up is because I say to you persevere, persevere, and never despise small beginnings because we were just a few people that had gotten together and tried to make this happen.
And this bill that I introduced, we began with, we were not able to get it out of the liberal dominated Senate that I was in. We tried, we tried again, we weren’t able to succeed.

But we didn’t give up because we knew the people of Minnesota ultimately wanted to be able to vote on this bill.

30 different states have put this bill up. Every time states have put this bill before the American people they have voted in their states to retain the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one women. And though I am no longer in the Minnesota State Senate, I am privileged to be able to serve the people of the 6th district in the House of Representatives.

Others took that torch and they carried on and just a week ago last Saturday evening, Minnesota finally passed the constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man, one woman. And so Minnesota is the first state that has decided this issue will be on the ballot in 2012. The state of New Hampshire, I understand, will be taking this issue up as well and other states.

This is the time, and so I want to encourage all of you at home; if you don’t have a similar amendment, consider this in your home states. I believe this is the time to do it so I just want to say thank you to those who have continued to carry the torch.

As we reported yesterday, Rep. Michele Bachmann made TIME Magazine’s  list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The Minnesota Republican, who has been outspoken about her aim to defund Planned Parenthood, is joined on that list by one Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — for whom Richards once served as deputy chief of staff — reviewed Richards for the magazine’s annual 100 list, which according to TIME, includes “artists and activists, reformers and researchers, heads of state and captains of industry,” whose “ideas spark dialogue and dissent and sometimes even revolution”:

To watch Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards at work is to see a portrait of grace, intellect and determination. Her family believes that public service is a noble calling; her mother, the remarkable Ann Richards, taught her that social justice is a cause worth fighting for. And Cecile has dedicated her abilities to progressive causes.

Cecile is a tenacious organizer, talented at both inside maneuvering and outside mobilization. She always wins. She leads with diplomacy and makes her case with facts, not hyperbole. That’s what I saw when she served as my deputy chief of staff; that’s what the nation sees as she leads Planned Parenthood.

Partly because of the respect legislators have for Cecile, being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition. She’s now leading the charge against a comprehensive and radical attack on women’s health and reproductive freedom.

Cecile, 53, is a proud mother of three, a devoted wife and gracious company. But make no mistake: her resolve is steadfast. And American women are the better for it.

Bachmann has been key in pushing for cutting funds to Planned Parenthood at the expense of a federal government shutdown. As we reported last month, Bachmann told participants on a ‘Defunding Planned Parenthood’ webcast sponsored by the Susan B. Anthony List that abortion is “the watershed issue of our time.” “We shouldn’t have one red cent go for Planned Parenthood,” she said. She recently received heat from eyewear company LensCrafters for claiming that “Planned Parenthood wants to be the LensCrafters of Big Abortion.” She attributed that quote to Planned Parenthood, but CNN reported that Bachmann “made up” the quote.

Richards has been president of Planned Parenthood since 2006.

Minnesota legislators introduced a bill on Monday that would ban state family planning money from going to any organization that offers abortion services, advocates for the right to choose an abortion, counsels pregnant women that abortion is an option or is affiliated with any organization that engages in those activities. In fact, under the bill, family planning dollars cannot be used to refer women to abortion services even if they are explicitly seeking those services. The bill introduced on Monday is the twelfth anti-abortion rights bill introduced so far this session.

The bill states that organizations that receive state family planning funding “may provide nondirective counseling relating to pregnancy but may not directly refer patients who seek abortion services to any organization that provides abortion services.”

Many organizations that receive such funding offer referrals for women who are seeking abortion services, but under the bill, those organizations would be banned from mentioning abortion.

The bill puts a large list of restrictions on family planning services. The funds cannot be used to subsidize abortion services or administration expenses indirect to abortion services. The funds cannot go to organizations that are affiliated with an organization that provides abortion services or has ever said that “abortion is considered part of a continuum of family planning services, reproductive health services, or both,” either in writing or by oral statement. Any organization receiving family planning funds would be barred from publicly advocating for the legality or accessibility of abortion.

The bill seems to particularly target Planned Parenthood clinics throughout the state. Most family planning funds in Minnesota go to county public health departments and smaller Planned Parenthood clinics in Greater Minnesota that do not perform abortions.

Under the bill, any organization or clinic with “the same or a similar name” to one that provides abortion services, referrals for abortion services or advocates for the legality of abortion would be prohibited from receiving family planning funds.

SF1224 was introduced by Republican Sens. Dan Hall of Burnsville, Paul Gazelka of Brainerd, Gretchen Hoffman of Vergas, Michelle Benson of Ham Lake and Sean Nienow of Cambridge.

Republicans in the House and Senate have offered 11 bills, in addition to SF1224, that would in some manner curtail reproductive rights including five bills that ban women on state-sponsored health plans from using that plan to obtain an abortion, five bills to ban abortion after 20 weeks gestation and a bill to prevent minors from seeking an abortion without parental consent. Legislators have also offered a bill to create a “Choose Life” license plate to help fund adoption services.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper fact-checked Rep. Michele Bachmann’s remarks about Planned Parenthood on Tuesday, particularly Bachmann’s repeated claims that “Planned Parenthood wants to be the LensCrafters of Big Abortion.” Cooper found that claim, during a social conservative gathering for potential presidential candidates, to be incorrect. The Minnesota Independent’s check on that claim last year came to a similar conclusion.

At an event by the Family Leader in Iowa last weekend, Bachmann said, “The executive director of Planned Parenthood in Illinois said, ‘We want Planned Parenthood wants to be the LensCrafters of Big Abortion.’ They are the largest provider of abortion in the United States. And not only that, the are one of the largest political organizations you can imagine as well.”

Cooper said, “She’s made up a quote.”

Bachmann is grossly distorting a remark by the head of the Illinois Planned Parenthood from an interview with the Wall Street Journal in 2008. As the Minnesota Independent reported in 2010:

“It is high time we follow the population,” said Sarah Stoesz, who heads Planned Parenthood operations in three Midwest states.

She recently opened three express centers in wealthy Minnesota suburbs, “in shopping centers and malls, places where women are already doing their grocery shopping, picking up their Starbucks, living their daily lives,” Ms. Stoesz said.

The mall sites promise walk-in convenience and “clothes-on” care, with services limited to birth-control counseling and tests for pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections. Most patients are in and out in less than half an hour.

“I like to think of it as the LensCrafters of family planning,” Steve Trombley, the top executive in Illinois, said as he toured an express center a few doors down from a hair salon and a Japanese restaurant in the well-to-do suburb of Schaumburg, Ill.

Those clinics provide services other than abortions, which further contradicts Bachmann’s claim.

Cooper added that Planned Parenthood has spent far less on politics than Bachmann asserts. He notes that during the 2010 midterms, the United States Chamber of Commerce spent $33 million and the SEIU spent $53 million — much more than the $1 million Planned Parenthood spent on the election.

“Compared to the others,” Cooper said, “it’s hard to call it one of the largest political organizations you can imagine.”

Cooper last took on Bachmann’s grasp of facts last November after the Sixth District Republican falsely claimed that a trip to India by President Obama would cost taxpayers “$200 million per day.” When grilled by the BBC, Bachmann backtracked slightly, saying she was merely “quoting a newspaper” in India that made the inaccurate claim.

Again stirring controversy on Capitol Hill is a measure in the U.S. House budget bill that would prevent federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood and cut Title X family planning funds. Potential presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty told anti-abortion rights group the Susan B. Anthony List that he supports defunding Planned Parenthood. Meanwhile, Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken signed a letter opposing the provision.

“Washington has a massive spending problem, and we need to set priorities,” Pawlenty told SBA List on April 1. “Recent undercover videos show that employees of America’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, aided alleged human traffickers wishing to exploit young girls. Yet, they continue to receive significant taxpayer funding. That should come to an end.”

Pawlenty has in the past refused family planning dollars at the state level. Minnesota’s other potential presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, has stated her position against funding for Planned Parenthood numerous times.

Meanwhile, Klobuchar and Franken are among 41 senators who signed a letter urging Senate leadership to oppose cuts to Planned Parenthood and family planning funds.

“We… oppose the provision in the House-passed Continuing Resolution that cuts Planned Parenthood health centers off from federal funds used to provide cancer screenings, birth control and other preventive health care services to three million Americans every year,” the letter states. “Without access to these services, many of these women will be unable to get preventive screenings, be at far greater risk for diseases such as cancer and will face more unintended pregnancies.”

Senate Republicans are working to defund family planning programs in Minnesota and prevent the state from accepting federal family planning dollars. The health and human services budget bill slashes money for programs that provide services to families either seeking to become pregnant or to prevent becoming pregnant. Those funds cannot be used to perform abortions or provide referrals to abortion services. The move mirrors a push by Republicans at the federal level to defund Planned Parenthood. Along with county public health departments, Planned Parenthood clinics in Minnesota are a major beneficiary of family planning funds.

The Health and Human Services Omnibus bill would repeal statute 145.925, which is the state’s family planning grant program. Those grants support county health departments, Planned Parenthood clinics and other community clinic throughout the state.

The omnibus bill not only stops funding for the state family planning grant program but also prohibits the state from accepting federal grants for family planning.

“The state shall not appropriate state funds or accept federal funds for family planning special projects or family planning services,” the omnibus bill states.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the Family Planning Special Projects Grants, one of the programs proposed for elimination, provided services to more than 40,000 people from July 2008 to June 2009. Counseling services were provided to 28,728 people, and 24,096 Minnesotans received exams, prescriptions and other medical services. Two-thirds of those people had income levels at the federal poverty line and 83 percent had incomes less than 200 percent of the poverty line.

The grant programs include birth control education and counseling, child-spacing counseling, screenings for breast and cervical cancer, community education events and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

The program cost about $10 million last biennium and has been in place since 1978.

Also slated for elimination is the Minnesota Family Planning Program, a Medicaid State 1115 Waiver Program Demonstration Project. The federally supported program allows low-income women to enroll in a family planning health care program that covers the cost of contraception services, voluntary sterilization services, birth control counseling and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. Update: The repeal of federally supported family planning programs has been removed from the bill.

In Montana, Republicans have proposed a similar policy of eliminating family planning, and they’re doing it because they don’t want money going to Planned Parenthood. At the federal level, House Republicans have proposed elimination of family planning dollars in a move to defund Planned Parenthood.

Neither the federal government nor Minnesota allow abortion services to be paid for with family planning funds.

The health and human services omnibus bill is currently being heard in committees, and could see a vote on the Senate floor this week.

Minnesota Republicans introduced two more bills on Thursday to ban abortions “at or after 20 weeks gestational age,” bringing the total number of bills banning various aspects of abortion to eight. Four would eliminate state funding for abortion services, and four more would prevent women from having abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Introducing the Senate bill, SF711, were Senate Finance Chair Claire Robling of Jordan, Senate Local Government Chair Ray Vandeveer of Forest Lake, Sen. Sean Nienow of Cambridge, Sen. Ben Kruse of Brooklyn Park, and Sen. David Brown of Becker.

The House bill, HF1042, was introduced by House Agriculture and Rural Development Policy and Finance Chair Rod Hamilton, Rep. Mary Liz Holberg of Lakeville, Rep. Dan Fabian of Roseau, Rep. Chris Swedzinski of Ghent, and Rep. Debra Kiel of Crookston.

The previous bills have the support of Republican leadership in the House and Senate; House Majority Leader Matt Dean of Dellwood and House Speaker Kurt Zellers of Maple Grove sponsored the 20-week ban, and Sen. David Hann of Eden Prairie, who serves as Assistant Majority Leader and chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, Sen. Michele Fischbach of Paynesville who is President of the Senate, and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch have all introduced a ban on taxpayer funding for abortion.

On the ban on abortions after 20 weeks, Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota said in a statement:

Not every pregnancy ends the way a family hopes it will. Some end in miscarriage, sometimes the mother develops serious complications. And sometimes she finds out there’s something seriously wrong with the pregnancy

This legislation bans safe medical options for a woman in this difficult situation and would have a devastating impact on a woman facing serious complications after her first trimester of pregnancy.

Abortion is a complex, deeply personal decision that a woman makes in consultation with her doctor, her family and trusted loved ones and advisers based on her unique medical situation. Women and families know their unique circumstances best and need to be able to make personal medical decisions, often very difficult ones, without government interference.

Though the legislation would ban abortions after 20 weeks, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life said the bill is about reducing pain associated with abortions.

“For far too long, Minnesota’s abortionists have been inflicting unconscionable suffering on unborn babies by killing them when they are already extraordinarily developed and pain-sensitive,” Scott Fischbach, Executive Director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life said in a statement. The group is pushing for all eight bills.

He added, “It is illegal to treat animals in such a brutal way; this bill will finally protect unborn children at 20 weeks and older from the torturous pain of abortion.”