Abortion in Minnesota
Abortion in Minnesota is legal at all stages of pregnancy[1][2] and is restricted only to standards of good medical practice.
[6] The 2023 American Values Atlas reported that, in their most recent survey, 67% of Minnesotans said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
The state legislature passed abortion restrictions in 2011, 2012[8] and 2018[9] that were ultimately all vetoed by DFL governor Mark Dayton.
By 2019, Minnesota was one of only two states in the nation (along with Alabama) that did not have a law that terminated parental rights of men who produced a child via rape or incest.
[21] Arkansas, Minnesota and Oklahoma all require that women seeking abortions after 20-weeks be verbally informed that the fetus may feel pain during the abortion procedure despite a Journal of the American Medical Association conclusion that pain sensors do not develop in the fetus until between weeks 23 and 30.
[25][26] In a 1894 case on abortion, the Minnesota Supreme Court said, "As a first impression, it may seem to be an unsound rule that one who solicits the commission of an offense, and willingly submits to its being committed upon her own person, should not be deemed an accomplice, while those whom she has thus solicited should be deemed principal criminals in the transaction.
"[18] The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester.
[18] However, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, No.
[27][28] The 1990 US Supreme Court case Hodgson v. Minnesota said that parental consent can cause danger for minors seeking abortions if physical, emotional or sexual abuse is already present.
[19][29] The case concerned a Minnesota law that required notifying both parents of a minor before she could undergo an abortion; it also contained a judicial bypass provision designed to take effect only if a court found it necessary.
[30] Justices Stevens, Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun and O'Connor formed a majority holding that the two-parent notice requirement by itself was unconstitutional.
[31] A 2022 ruling by a state district court in Doe v. Minnesota decided that certain regulations on abortion were also unconstitutional.
[46]Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, abortion rights protests were held in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
[48] Minnesota Family Council (MFC) is a Christian organization that, among other issues, opposes abortion and abortion-related education in public schools, stating that: "human life is sacred from conception to natural death and must be protected by government".
[50] On January 22, 2009, Matthew L. Derosia, 32, who was reported to have had a history of mental illness, rammed an SUV into the front entrance of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Saint Paul, Minnesota, causing between $2,500 and $5,000 in damage.
