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.

MCCL has already sent a letter to Republican leaders demanding that anti-abortion measures be included in the budget talks and warned legislators in statements to the press that the group was “questioning that leadership” of Republicans on abortion policy.

On Monday the group started a pressure campaign among its members.

“In 2009, pro-lifers across the state worked tirelessly and were successful in implementing a two-year ban on taxpayer funding of human cloning. This year, if the Legislature doesn’t reauthorize the ban, taxpayers will be forced to pay for cloning,” the email said (emphasis theirs).

The actual language of that ban would prohibit taxpayer funding somatic cell nuclear transfer, a type of stem cell research that creates a a blastocyst using a patient’s own cells with the purpose of making stem cells that won’t be rejected by the patient’s body.

Contrary to MCCL’s email alert, no state-funded (or privately-funded) institution is currently engaged in such research in Minnesota and the University of Minnesota had repeatedly told the media that it has no plans to initiate such research. The ban was included in a higher education budget which was vetoed by Gov. Mark Dayton.

Perhaps noting the inaccuracy, the group changed the language of the email when it posted it to its blog Monday evening. Instead of “taxpayers will be forced,” the group changed the language to “can be forced.”

The email continued, “The Right to Life is the most important right of all — and Minnesota can’t move backwards in protecting human life. Call or email your legislators and make sure your voice is heard! Final decisions are being made now. Your message to your legislators can be very simple: no taxpayer dollars for human cloning! Be sure to remind your elected officials how important protecting human life is to you and that reauthorizing the ban on taxpayer funding of human cloning is the right thing to do!”

In addition to pressure from MCCL, the Minnesota Catholic Conference engaged in a similar pressure campaign on Monday, focusing on banning SCNT stem cell research, but failing to distinguish between “human cloning” and somatic cell nuclear transfer.

The policy wing of the Roman Catholic Church in Minnesota is asking its members to urge Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican leaders to include a ban on somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) — which it inaccurately calls “human cloning” — in the budget framework currently being worked out. Pressure from the Minnesota Catholic Conference to include the controversial ban follows an agreement by Dayton and Republican leaders to leave social issues out of the bill that would end Minnesota’s government shutdown, which is in its third week. Despite the church’s pressure campaign, no state-funded entities in Minnesota have conducted the research.

SCNT involves the creation of a blastocyst using a patient’s own cells and then creating stem cells that wont be rejected by the patient during a transplant. Anti-abortion activists call the process human cloning.

Republicans offered the ban in the higher education bill, vetoed by Dayton, that would prevent the University of Minnesota from conducting such research if it takes state funds. Another ban was included in a health and human services bill that would have criminalized the research — and possibly make criminals of patients from others states who benefit from the research.

Much of the debate over SCNT involves the use of the term “human cloning.” SCNT would not allow researchers to grow an entire new human being, known as reproductive cloning. It allows researchers to clone a patient’s stem cells, a process called therapeutic cloning.

In a message that MCC is urging its members to send to legislators, the group does not make that distinction:

A recent International Communications Research poll showed that 75% of Americans strongly oppose human cloning for any reason. And the United Nations has recommended its member nations ban the practice of human cloning. With this much opposition, I am asking you to again include a ban on human cloning funding in the Higher Education omnibus bill. Please, don’t use my tax dollars on such a controversial issue; one that I believe is immoral!

In an email to its membership, MCC reiterated the cloning language:

In the heated budget debates going on at the Capitol, a ban on the use of State funds for human cloning research is at risk. Pro-life lawmakers added a ban on the taxpayer funding of human cloning to the original Higher Education omnibus bill, but it was vetoed by Governor Dayton. It is now uncertain whether the funding ban will remain in place in the compromise budget bill being drafted right now.

The funding ban prevents Minnesotans’ tax dollars from funding research in human cloning, a practice that is unethical, immoral and wrong. The Legislature passed a similar ban in 2009, but it must be reauthorized every two years. This human cloning funding ban would permanently prevent state taxpayer funds from being used to clone human beings. If not renewed, it would be the first time in Minnesota history that a pro-life law has been reversed by the Legislature and Governor.

We at the Minnesota Catholic Conference are asking you to contact your legislators and tell them not to put the taxpayer’s money into the funding of human cloning! In today’s tough times, it is an easy choice to tell your legislator that our tax dollars should be helping, not hindering, humanity in our state. Click the link below to take action now!

Despite the assertion that money would go into such research if the ban is not included in the budget negotiations, the University of Minnesota says it does not engage in SCNT and hasn’t made plans to in the future. No institution in Minnesota or the United States is attempting to clone an entire human being through reproductive cloning. Most countries that have outlawed reproductive cloning have also allowed the less controversial stem cell cloning to continue.

The issue arises as anti-abortion groups press for abortion bans in the budget negotiations and urge legislators to extend the shutdown if the bans are not included.

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.

In a veiled threat to Republicans, MCCL’s Scott Fischbach told Minnesota Public Radio that his group will be taking a second look at Republican leaders.

“We had operated under the assumption that we had pro-life leadership in both the House and the Senate. I think that there are many pro-lifers that are devastated now to the point of questioning some of that leadership,” he said. “And we’re going to have to address that down the road.”

Fischbach’s wife is one of those in leadership. Sen. Michelle Fischbach, R-Paynesville, is the president of the Minnesota Senate.

MCCL has pushed for a ban on certain types of stem cell research, a ban on abortion after 20 weeks gestation and a ban on the use of state subsidized health care for abortion procedures. Those measures were included in the Republican’s budget bills but were vetoed by Dayton in May.

Politics in Minnesota reported on Saturday that MCCL had also sent a letter to Republican legislators urging them to vote against the agreement being drawn up between Dayton and Republican leadership.

Already, abortion politics has been viewed as a partial cause of the government shutdown when Republicans included the controversial policies as part of negotiations a day before talks with Dayton failed and the state began a shutdown.

The Catholic church is also insistent that any budget solution include bans on abortion and some types of stem cell research.

Debate continued on Friday over what killed the budget talks between Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican leadership. Certainly, a no-taxes pledge by the Republican majority in the Minnesota Legislature and Dayton’s insistence that new revenues be raised by wealthy Minnesotans played a significant part, but social issues — especially abortion — seem to have played a part in the stalemate as well.

On Thursday, Republicans included several controversial issues in its budget negotiations. Rep. Larry Hosch, DFL-St. Joseph, told St. Cloud WJON, “Other issues came into the discussion, very controversial ones, such as stem cell funding, school vouchers, a request to have the redistricting map signed by the governor if he agreed to the map.”

Rep. Steve Gottwalt, R-St. Cloud, said there was nothing wrong with that. He’s also a sponsor of most of the controversial issues brought up in negotiations.

“In a negotiation it is common for you to bring things forward and say lets talk about these things, these are things that are important to our side,” he told WJON. “What is unconscionable is to look at that and say, okay that means I’m pulling everybody back and I’m walking away without doing anything.”

The effort to bring divisive social issues into the budget negotiation did not sit well with civil liberties groups. The Minnesota chapter of the ACLU released a statement Friday criticizing Republicans.

“While Minnesotans were led to believe that the crux of the debate was a fundamental disagreement over the amount the state should spend on government, it is now clear that the republican negotiators added extreme policy changes to their list of demands. The policies had varying levels of support during the recently completed legislative session, but none were signed into law,” said Chuck Samuelson, director of ACLU-MN. “To try negotiating away the constitutional rights of Minnesotans in exchange for a balance budget deal is a troubling abuse of power. At the ALCU of Minnesota we continue to have grave concerns about the constitutionality of several of the proposed provisions and will keep monitoring the legislature.”

The group praised Dayton for no caving.

“Although the result is a government shutdown, which will adversely impact many Minnesotans, we believe there is no price tag for preserving constitutional rights and thank Governor Dayton for standing strong. At the same time, our hearts go out to the thousands of Minnesotans who will be negatively impacted by the shutdown,” Samuelson said.

Dayton told reporters on Friday afternoon that budget talks aren’t likely to resume until after the holiday weekend.

During budget negotiations the week before Friday’s government shutdown, Republican leaders pressed Gov. Mark Dayton to include a ban on abortions at 20 weeks gestation, a ban on taxpayer-funded abortions and a ban on some forms of stem cell research. Even as the shutdown of Minnesota government had begun, the principal anti-abortion lobby, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, continued to push its agenda.

MinnPost’s Doug Grow notes that the controversial issues were included in budget talks:

In the end, Republicans and Dayton weren’t only separated by fiscal issues. Republicans apparently were still loading bills with other goodies from their platform. In the final days of negotiations, Republicans were still insisting on legislation supporting voter ID and restrictions on abortion and stem cell research in their talks with Dayton.

After the talks had collapsed, Koch said those were matters that could have been “hammered out” with just a bit more negotiating. Fiscal issues were the key divide, she said.

The Star Tribune noted the same:

Talks may have also broken down because an earlier GOP offer asked Dayton to accept controversial policy positions the Republicans pushed for this year, including photo ID requirements at the polls and abortion restrictions. An offer sheet provided to the Star Tribune said the policy adoptions were in exchange for “new revenue in a compromise offer.”

On Thursday, as last-ditch efforts at a budget deal were being negotiated, MCCL pressed for a renewed ban on somatic cell nuclear transfer, a method used in stem cell research and a technique the group calls “human cloning.”

“The 2009 Legislature ushered through a session law provision that provided for a two-year ban on state funding of all forms of human cloning. Because this provision expires on June 30, MCCL has supported legislative efforts to either ban human cloning or to enact a statutory prohibition on taxpayer funding of human cloning,” the group said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “Both of these efforts were ultimately included in omnibus bills and vetoed by Gov. Dayton. If no language is included in the final budget agreement, Minnesota’s established pro-life policy on human cloning will end and Minnesota taxpayers can legally be forced to fund human cloning and human cloning experimentation.”

The group had been pushing the ban on some forms of stem cell research all session.

And by Friday morning, about 9 hours into the state government shutdown, MCCL was urging a ban on taxpayer-funded abortions on Twitter.

“MN taxpayers have paid $17 million for elective abortions since the MN Supreme Court forced the state to fundi abortions,” the group wrote, including a link to its legislative page on the issue.

Sen. Tom Bakk told Minnesota Public Radio on Friday morning that it was shameful that the GOP included “things like restricting a women’s right to choose, things like making it a crime for the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic to do stem cell research.”

“There was this huge list of things they just had to have to even borrow money,” he said of the final negotiations where the GOP wanted to shift education funding down the road and borrow from future tobacco settlement money.

He said that even former Gov. Tim Pawlenty demanded social policy be removed from budget negotiations during his tenure.

Also included were the GOP’s redistricting plan and voter ID. Here’s the GOP’s budget negotiation document obtained by the Star Tribune:
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As expected, Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed all budget bills Tuesday that were submitted by the Republicans. His message to the GOP: “Compromise.” Dayton also hit Republicans for including divisive social issues in their budgets.

In the higher education bill, Dayton said he wouldn’t accept restrictions on stem cell research, a provision that was heavily debated in the Legislature. Republicans, and a few DFLers, moved to include a ban on somatic cell nuclear transfer, as well as all products from that procedure in University of Minnesota research, in the budget bill.

“The definition included in the bill is vague and could threaten further development of stem cell research,” Dayton said.

The education budget bill included a private school voucher program that would allow for taxpayer subsidies for religious schooling. Dayton called the provision “unwise.”

“I am disappointed that the bill creates a private school voucher program, an experiment that has not worked in other states,” he wrote. “Until our public schools are funded at adequate and sustainable levels, a diversion of public funds to private schools is unwise.”

The Health and Human Services bill contained health care cuts for 140,000 Minnesotans, which Dayton called “unconscionable.”

He also said the bill had become “a vehicle for divisive social issues,” such as a ban on stem cell research and a ban on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

In the Public Safety budget bill, Dayton criticized cuts and changes to the Department of Civil Rights.

“Discrimination remains a serious problem in Minnesota,” he wrote. “Your extreme cut in funding, along with your policy language, would weaken the Human Rights Act and lessen the effectiveness of the Department of Human Rights. This I will not allow.”

In a press statement announcing the vetoes, Dayton accused Republicans of failing to compromise.

“In the spirit of compromise, more than one week ago, I cut my proposal in half, in the hopes that an offer to meet in the middle would spur action towards the balanced solution the people of Minnesota have asked for,” said Dayton. “Instead, you chose to present me with an all-cuts approach, one that has serious consequences for Minnesotans, and that I do not believe is in line with our shared commitment to build a better Minnesota.”

He concluded, “Compromise is never easy, because each person must give up something that is important. Compromise requires us to agree to items that we don’t agree with. That is the only way we will reconcile our differences on the state’s budget. I am returning this and the other budget bills to you with the hope that you will choose to work with me, to find a fair, responsible, and balanced solution.”

The Stem Cell Action Coalition issued an “urgent appeal” to Gov. Mark Dayton Friday urging him to veto two provisions in Republican budget bills that would ban somatic cell nuclear transfer, a component of embryonic stem cell research. The coalition of more than 70 local, national and international groups said that efforts to curtail stem cell research are being “stampeded” through the Minnesota Legislature “without any scientific basis.” Currently, anti-abortion rights activists have offered a state and federal ban on funding for SCNT in a higher education budget bill and offered a provision in the health and human services budget bill to make SCNT a crime in the state.

“Minnesota is one of the leading states in biomedical research,” said Bernard Siegel, spokesperson for the coalition. “It would be misguided to handcuff Minnesota’s world-class researchers that are using embryonic stem cells to seek potentially lifesaving cures. Without any scientific basis, Minnesota lawmakers are being stampeded into passing laws that will likely have tragic consequences for patients.”

The coalition includes a broad spectrum of nonprofit and research organizations including the Alliance for Aging Research, the American Academy of Neurology, the American Society of Hematology, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the Cerebral Palsy International Research Foundation, the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation, and the National Hepatitis C Task Force.

“SCNT, a form of deriving embryonic stem cells, has been recognized as a potentially valuable technique for creating human cell lines that exhibit the characteristics of deadly diseases,” Siegel said in a statement. “Study of laboratory models of human disease may significantly advance our understanding of the root cause of human disease, and their use in the discovery and development of drugs that may prove invaluable. To criminalize or place unreasonable restrictions on SCNT is akin to crushing hope to those suffering from multiple sclerosis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, spinal cord injury, stroke, blindness, AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, birth defects and many more medical afflictions for which no cure is known.”

Gov. Dayton’s office hinted on Thursday that he is prepared to veto the budget bills, in part because of the stem cell research restrictions.

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.

Currently, a ban on state and federal funding for SCNT is contained in the higher education omnibus bill that passed both the Minnesota Senate and the House, and a provision to make SCNT a crime is in the health and human services omnibus bill that awaits further debate.

In the Senate, the ban is being promoted by Sen. Michelle Fischbach (R-Paynesville), whose husband Scott Fischbach runs MCCL, an affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).

The American Council on Science and Health questioned the motives of those supporting the ban. The group cited a recent Minnesota Independent article that sorted out facts and myths surrounding the debate, particularly some assertions by MCCL that appear to muddle the facts surrounding the issue.

ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross came up with some possible reasons for Sen. Fischbach’s motivation: “Well, she may not be intentionally trying to mislead the public — she may just be ignorant,” he quips. “When I read stories like this about legislators ruling on scientific issues, I realize why we have all of these bans of safe and useful products — because these people have no idea what they’re talking about. They get hundreds of letters from card-toting members of the NRDC, EWG and who knows which other fringe groups, saying, ‘We need to ban this chemical for the sake of our children!’ and then, lo and behold, the legislature votes to ban it. In this case, the Minnesota Senate has been presented with the science, and yet the majority are making the issue into a moral one, although if they listened to the science, they would know it’s not even a moral issue. There is neither a scientific nor a moral reason why you should be against SCNT. Embryos aren’t harmed in the process, and it provides a vast potential to treat illnesses that are currently incurable.”

Minnesota’s major media outlets have covered the ban this week. MCCL called the Star Tribune’s Wednesday feature on the issue “hopelessly confused,” said the paper was “terribly at fault for publishing” the article and added, “The reporter, Jenna Ross, is uneducated and obviously not qualified to be writing about this subject.” They offered the same criticism of a Pioneer Press article on Thursday.

The University of Minnesota held a press conference on Thursday with families who have been helped by stem cell therapy, and although no SCNT stem cell treatments have yet been used, the university asserted that it could and that efforts to curtail research could prevent future treatments.

“The authors of this bill are trying to confuse people into thinking stem cell research, that can save so many lives, is human cloning. It is not,” said Sherri Gunvalson, whose son has a fatal form of muscular dystrophy. “If they succeed in passing this horrible bill, it will be another step in an effort to ban stem cell research in the misguided belief that somehow this ban is pro-life.”

Following the press conference, MCCL put out a statement defending the bil:

“The stories of young people being helped by the University of Minnesota Stem Cell Institute are very compelling. All Minnesotans want cures to be found. It is important to note than none of the patients who shared their stories today were helped by human cloning. The legislation that is currently under consideration would in no way affect existing adult or embryonic stem cell research. The proposed ban on human cloning does one thing — it bans human cloning. Numerous countries across the globe have done the same thing, and the United Nations has also called for a ban on all forms of human cloning. We repeat our call for research to be done at the U of M that is ethical and life affirming.”

What MCCL leaves out is that the United Nations is currently reopening the debate on whether to ban the actual cloning of human beings while allowing SCNT, also called therapeutic cloning, to continue.

MCCL and Fischbach have rejected efforts to amend legislation to clarify the difference between reproductive cloning — the creation of a new human being through SCNT — and therapeutic cloning, which creates a low number of cells, for research.

As Sen. Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park) notes in a recent press release, “Their so-called ban on cloning does nothing more than impose a very conservative religious definition of when life begins on the scope of scientific stem cell research in Minnesota.”

And the energy expended by the Legislature may be all for naught; MinnPost reported on Thursday that Gov. Mark Dayton is likely to veto any provision in the budget bills dealing with “human cloning” bans.

A ban on somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), a technique used in some forms of stem cell research, passed the House and Senate floors on Tuesday evening in a pair of higher education budget bills. The bills would prohibit state or federal funding from going toward SCNT stem cell research. The two bills are headed to conference committee, where the two bodies will hash out the parts of the bills that differ. Gov. Mark Dayton indicated in a letter to legislators that he would veto a bill that contained the stem cell bans, citing them as policy issues that don’t belong in budget bills.

In the House, Rep, King Banaian (R-St. Cloud) moved to amend the higher education bill with language banning SCNT, calling it “human cloning.”

“This is simply concerned with the funding of research into this. It is not an outright ban,” he said on the floor. “It does not ban a state institution doing it if it was able to find private funding to do so.”

In the Senate, the higher education bill was similarly amended in committee by Sen. Michelle Fischbach (R-Paynesville), whose husband, Scott Fischbach is executive director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, which has lobbied for the ban.

DFLers on the Senate floor objected to the provision saying it would prevent important therapeutic research from happening in Minnesota.

“The effect of that would be very significant for our economy and jobs, and very significant for the potential to control or cure very sign diseases that affect all of our families,” said Sen. Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park).

He said proponents of the bill weren’t being completely honest about its true motivations.

“It’s the agenda of [Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life] and the pro-life movement to move the line of where human conception begins,” said Latz. “I respect those who sincerely hold those beliefs, but we ought to be having it on terms that we understand that it’s not hiding behind scientific language when that’s not really what it’s doing.”

DFLers moved to amend the bill to have it ban the creation of human clones and to allow for therapeutic research.

Sen. John Marty (DFL-Roseville) said, “If you want to ban cloning but don’t want to stop the medical research, vote for the amendment, but don’t be pretending you want to do it because you want to ban human cloning.”

Those amendments were defeated.

Gov. Dayton wrote Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch on Tuesday stating that like his predecessor, Republican Tim Pawlenty, he would likely send back bills that contained “extraneous policy” proposals that didn’t relate to the budget.

And Dayton’s commissioner of higher education, Sheila Wright, specifically called out the stem cell ban in a letter to Republican leadership.

“Language regarding Human Cloning is moving in a separate bill and should continue to do so,” wrote Wright. “Any policy provisions not tied to the budget should be removed so we can focus on the budget.”

The Senate Higher Education Committee on Wednesday adopted an amendment by Sen. Michelle Fischbach, R-Paynesville, that would prohibit state or federal money from going to somatic cell nuclear transfer, a type of embryonic stem cell research, in Minnesota. A broader bill, which would criminalize that type of stem cell research, awaits a vote on the Senate floor. The full omnibus bill passed out of key committees on Thursday and has moved to the Senate floor for a full vote.

The amendment offered by Sen. Fischbach to the higher ed bill states:

No state funds or federal funds the state receives for state programs may be used to either support human cloning or to pay for any expenses incidental to human cloning. For purposes of this section, “cloning” means generating a genetically identical copy of an organism at any stage of development by combining an enucleated egg and the nucleus of a somatic cell to make an embryo.

The higher ed bill with the SCNT ban passed the Senate Higher Education Committee on a party line vote on Wednesday.

Sen. Terri Bonoff, DFL-Minnetonka, told the Senate Finance Committee Thursday, “We want to be a leader on research and development and to have this provision in here will curtail our ability to do that research. It’s a pretty sweeping thing that’s been put in this bill.”

The bill passed the finance committee and will now head to the Senate floor.