Star Tribune
Minnesota abortion opponents rally against political headwinds
Thousands of abortion opponents gathered on the State Capitol steps on the 51st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision Monday to mark the increase in abortions in the state as Minnesota becomes an island of access in the Midwest.
The mood was somber at the annual March for Life, where organizers placed more than 12,000 fetal models in front of the building to represent the number of abortions in the state in 2022. They then placed the models inside the Capitol rotunda.
“I look out at you, at this crowd of thousands, and I see what that loss of life really means for Minnesota,” said Cathy Blaeser, co-executive director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, which hosted the rally. “Twelve thousand lives is a lot of lives lost.”
Anti-abortion activists pushed for decades to undo the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that provided constitutional protections for the procedure. But the court’s reversal of Roe in 2022 helped propel Democrats to narrow majorities in the Legislature in the midterm election, which they used to pass historic protections for abortion rights into law last spring.
Abortions in Minnesota increased by 20% in 2022, according to data released by the state Department of Health last June. More than 16% of the 12,175 abortions involved women who traveled from other states where abortion is banned or restricted, doubling the total from the previous year. Before 2022, abortions had been gradually declining in the state since the late 1980s, reaching a low of 9,861 in 2015. Planned Parenthood North Central States, the state’s largest provider, has seen a 25% increase in abortions since Roe was overturned.
“Life as an abortion provider has always looked different depending on where you live, but the contrast has only grown starker,” Dr. Sarah Traxler, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood North Central States, said in a statement on the anniversary of the Roe decision. “Everyone has a right to health care. And your zip code shouldn’t dictate the care you can access.”
At a panel discussion at Planned Parenthood earlier this month, Gov. Tim Walz predicted Minnesota will continue to see a surge in women traveling to the state for abortion access, and he backed the idea of putting an amendment on the ballot to codify abortion rights in the state Constitution. Democrats codified the right to an abortion in state law last session, but a constitutional amendment would go a step further and would be harder for a future Republican-led Legislature to undo.
Last year, Democrats also enacted protections for providers and people traveling into the state seeking abortion access and eliminated a number of laws on the books that were recently struck down by the courts, including an informed consent requirement and 24-hour waiting period.
The legislative action makes Minnesota an outlier in the region. Since Roe’s reversal, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin banned most abortions. Abortion is currently legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks, but the Iowa Supreme Court is expected to rule later this year on a law that would ban most abortions after six weeks.
“We’re holding a lot of gratitude and appreciation for all the progresses we made in the state last year in the Legislature, which we see as resetting the table on abortion,” said Megan Peterson, executive director of Gender Justice, which pushed for a number of the law changes passed in Minnesota last year. She said the changes put abortion back “in the spectrum of care that people need by removing laws that created obstacles and were designed to push abortion out of the regular mainstream health care context.”
Organizers of the March for Life said they expect Democrats to push more abortion rights legislation in 2024, and they raised the alarm about another proposal that would allow physicians to dispense life-ending medication to terminally ill patients with less than six months to live. Democrats in the House are holding their first hearing on the bill Thursday.
“It’s not just for the children; it’s a matter of life for our elderly, those with disabilities, those people that are undervalued,” said Rebecca Souer, who traveled from Barnesville in western Minnesota for the rally. “No, these people are important and they are valuable.”
The 2024 legislative session convenes on Feb. 12.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
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