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{{short description|Overview of the legality and prevalence of abortions in the U.S. state of Minnesota}}
{{short description|Overview of the legality and prevalence of abortions in the U.S. state of Minnesota}}
{{Copy edit|for=language use. "Fetal heartbeat" (or similar) is used incorrectly in Wikivoice; see [[Talk:Six-week abortion ban#Regarding the recent page change]]|date=May 2022}}
{{Copy edit|for=language use. "Fetal heartbeat" (or similar) is used incorrectly in Wikivoice; see [[Talk:Six-week abortion ban#Regarding the recent page change]]|date=May 2022}}
'''Abortion in Minnesota''' is legal. In an undated [[Pew Research Center]] survey, 52% of Minnesota adults said that [[abortion]] should be legal in all or most cases, 45% said that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, and 4% said they don't know. <ref>{{cite web |last1= |first1= |title=Views about abortion among adults in Minnesota |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/state/minnesota/views-about-abortion/ |website=[[Pew Research]] |access-date=May 8, 2022 |date=}}</ref>
'''Abortion in Minnesota''' is legal until viability (approx. 23 weeks gestation) <ref>{{cite web |author1=First Care |title=Abortion and Minnesota: What the Law Says |url=https://firstcaremn.org/abortion-and-minnesota-what-the-law-says/ |website=[[Pew Research]] |access-date=May 8, 2022 |date=}}</ref>. In an undated [[Pew Research Center]] survey, 52% of Minnesota adults said that [[abortion]] should be legal in all or most cases, 45% said that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, and 4% said they don't know. <ref>{{cite web |last1= |first1= |title=Views about abortion among adults in Minnesota |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/state/minnesota/views-about-abortion/ |website=[[Pew Research]] |access-date=May 8, 2022 |date=}}</ref>


==Background==
==Background==

Revision as of 04:45, 9 May 2022

Abortion in Minnesota is legal until viability (approx. 23 weeks gestation) [1]. In an undated Pew Research Center survey, 52% of Minnesota adults said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, 45% said that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, and 4% said they don't know. [2]

Background

Abortion bans were instituted by 1900 [citation needed].  Abortion was a criminal offense for women by 1950.  By 2007, the state had informed consent laws on the book, providing information that contradicted Journal of the American Medical Association conclusions[citation needed]. The state legislature tried and failed to pass abortion restrictions in 2012, 2018 and 2019.

The number of abortion clinics have been declining in recent years, going from twenty in 1982 to fourteen in 1992 to six in 2014.   There were 10,123 legal abortions in 2014, and 9,861 in 2015.[citation needed] Abortion was criminally prosecuted between 1911 and 1930, resulting in 30 convictions against women in that period. Doctors were being convicted of performing illegal abortions in the early 1970s.  The state has an abortion rights community, including UnRestrict MN[3], involved in activities such as facilitating travel for women seeking abortions and protesting in support of abortion rights.  There is also an active anti-abortion rights community, which includes organizations like Minnesota Family Council and Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life.

Minnesota was one of only two states in the nation in 2019 (along with Alabama) that did not have a law that terminated parental rights of men who produced a child via rape or incest.[4] [5]

History

Legislative history

In the 19th century, bans by state legislatures on abortion were about protecting the life of the mother given the number of deaths caused by abortions; state governments saw themselves as looking out for the lives of their citizens.[6] By 1950, the state legislature would pass a law that stating that a woman who had an abortion or actively sought to have an abortion regardless of whether she went through with it were guilty of a criminal offense.[6] Parental consent laws passed by Massachusetts and Minnesota in the 1980s created over 12,000 petitions to bypass consent.  Of these, 21 were denied and half of these denials were overturned on appeal.[7][8]

The state was one of 23 states in 2007 to have a detailed abortion-specific informed consent requirement.[9] 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.[10] The state legislature was one of four states nationwide that tried, and failed, to pass a so-called "fetal heartbeat bill" in 2012.[11]

In 2018, the state was one of eleven where the legislature introduced a bill that would have banned abortion in almost all cases.  It did not pass.[11] The state legislature was one of ten states nationwide that tried to unsuccessfully pass a "heartbeat bill" in 2018.  Only Iowa successfully passed such a bill, but it was struck down by the courts.[11] As of May 14, 2019, the state prohibited abortions after the fetus was viable, generally some point between week 24 and 28. This period uses a standard defined by the US Supreme Court in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade ruling.[11] On January 22, 2019, Tim Miller filed HF 271 in the Minnesota House of Representatives.[12]

Judicial history

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.  But in cases of this kind the public welfare demands the application of this rule, and its exceptions from the general rule seems to be justified by the wisdom of experience.  The wife, then, in this case, was not, within the rules of the law, an accomplice.  She was the victim of the cruel act which resulted in her death.  Misguided by her own desires, and mistaken in her belief, she, by the advice of the defendant, submitted to his treatment, willing, it may be; but the desire of one, and the criminal act of the other, resulted in the death of one, and the imprisonment of the other."[6]

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.[6]

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.[7][13] The case concerned a Minnesota law. The law required notice to 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 one to be necessary.[14] Dr. Jane Hodgson, a Minneapolis gynecologist, challenged the law. The Eighth Circuit had ruled that the law would be unconstitutional without a judicial bypass, but that the bypass provision saved it.[14] While Justice Stevens delivered a majority opinion for one of the holdings, there were five votes for each of two holdings, with Justice O'Connor proving as the decisive vote for each.[14] Justices Stevens, Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun and O'Connor formed a majority holding that the two-parent notice requirement by itself was unconstitutional.[14] Justice O'Connor believed that the two-parent requirement entailed risk to a pregnant teenager; she also argued that the rule failed to meet even the lowest standard of judicial review, a rationality standard.[14] She joined the Court's more conservative Justices (Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices White, Scalia and Kennedy), to form a majority for the law being valid with the judicial bypass; Justice Kennedy had pointed out the usefulness of the bypass procedure, as judges granted all but a handful of requests to authorize abortions without parental notice.[14]

Clinic history

Number of abortion clinics in Minnesota by year
See also: Abortion clinic

Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state decreased by six, going from twenty in 1982 to fourteen in 1992.[15] In 2014, there were six abortion clinics in the state.[16] In 2014, 95% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 59% of women in the state aged 15–44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic.[17] In 2017, there were eighteen Planned Parenthood clinics, of which one offered abortion services, in a state with a population of 1,227,431 women aged 15–49.[18]

Statistics

In the period between 1972 and 1974, there were no recorded illegal abortion death in the state.[19] In 1990, 529,000 women in the state faced the risk of an unintended pregnancy.[15] In 2013, among white women aged 15–19, there were 510 abortions, 260 abortions for black women aged 15–19, 80 abortions for Hispanic women aged 15–19, and 140 abortions for women of all other races.[20] In 2014, 52% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.[21] In 2017, the state had an infant mortality rate of 4.8 deaths per 1,000 live births.[22]

Number of reported abortions, abortion rate and percentage change in rate by geographic region and state in 1992, 1995 and 1996[23]
Census division and state Number Rate % change 1992–1996
1992 1995 1996 1992 1995 1996
West North Central 57,340 48,530 48,660 14.3 11.9 11.9 –16
Iowa 6,970 6,040 5,780 11.4 9.8 9.4 –17
Kansas 12,570 10,310 10,630 22.4 18.3 18.9 –16
Minnesota 16,180 14,910 14,660 15.6 14.2 13.9 –11
Missouri 13,510 10,540 10,810 11.6 8.9 9.1 –21
Nebraska 5,580 4,360 4,460 15.7 12.1 12.3 –22
North Dakota 1,490 1,330 1,290 10.7 9.6 9.4 –13
South Dakota 1,040 1,040 1,030 6.8 6.6 6.5 –4
Number, rate, and ratio of reported abortions, by reporting area of residence and occurrence and by percentage of abortions obtained by out-of-state residents, US CDC estimates
Location Residence Occurrence % obtained by

out-of-state residents

Year Ref
No. Rate^ Ratio^^ No. Rate^ Ratio^^
Minnesota 15.6 1992 [23]
Minnesota 14,910 14.2 1995 [23]
Minnesota 14,660 13.9 1996 [23]
Minnesota 9,533 9.1 136 10,123 9.6 145 9.3 2014 [24]
Minnesota 9,234 8.8 132 9,861 9.4 141 9.8 2015 [25]
Minnesota 9,425 8.9 135 10,017 9.5 144 9.0 2016 [26]
^number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44; ^^number of abortions per 1.000 live births

Criminal prosecutions of abortion

Between 1911 and 1930, there were 100 indictments and 30 convictions for women having abortions.[6] Dr. Jane Hodgson was convicted in 1970 of performing an illegal abortion on a 23-year-old woman in Minnesota. Hodgson was an abortion rights activist.[27]

Abortion financing

State Medicaid coverage of medically necessary abortion services.
  Medicaid covers medically necessary abortion for low-income women through legislation
  Medicaid covers medically necessary abortions for low-income women under court order
  Medicaid denies abortion coverage for low-income women except for cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment.

Seventeen states including this one use their own funds to cover all or most "medically necessary" abortions sought by low-income women under Medicaid, thirteen of which are required by State court orders to do so.[28] In 2010, the state had 3,941 publicly funded abortions, of which sixteen were federally funded and 3,925 were state funded.[29]

Abortion rights views and activities

Activities

Around 1981, when the doctors who ran abortion clinics in Grand Forks and Jamestown, North Dakota, were getting close to an age where they wanted to retire, they reached out to Jane Bovard and asked her to open a clinic in Fargo.  Bovard had a history of supporting abortion rights in the state by assisting women in traveling to Minneapolis or cities in other states to get abortions.[30]

St. Paul, Minnesota, January 21, 2017. Over 30,000 people gathered in St. Paul and marched to the Minnesota capitol to protest President Donald Trump.

Anti-abortion views and activities

Organizations

Minnesota Family Council (MFC), a Christian organization founded, among other issues, to oppose abortion-related education in public schools, stating that: "human life is sacred from conception to natural death and must be protected by government".[31]

The Marriage Vow or "The Marriage Vow - A Declaration of Dependence Upon Marriage and Family" is a political pledge created by Bob Vander Plaats, a former candidate for Iowa governor, and the Iowa-based conservative group; The Family Leader, a public advocacy organization affiliated with the Iowa Family Policy Center, that he heads.[32] The two most notable signatures came from Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann. Rick Santorum was the first presidential candidate to contact The Family Leader after the organization publicly announced the pledge. Michele Bachmann also contacted The Family Leader to sign the pledge, and became the first Candidate to send her signed document to the organization.[33] Although Newt Gingrich did not sign the pledge, he wrote a lengthy letter in which he upheld many of the principles of the pledge including personal fidelity to his wife, respecting the marital bonds of others, enforcing the defense of marriage act, to support a federal marriage amendment, and to oppose any definition of marriage outside of "one man and one woman."[34] The pledge was also signed by former Texas governor Rick Perry.[35]

Violence

In 1977, there was an arson attack on a Minnesota abortion clinic.[36] An act of violence took place at an abortion clinic in Crow Wing County, Minnesota.[36] On January 22, 2009, Matthew L. Derosia, 32, who was reported to have had a history of mental illness,[37] rammed an SUV into the front entrance of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Saint Paul, Minnesota,[37] causing between $2,500 and $5,000 in damage.[38] Derosia, who told police that Jesus told him to "stop the murderers", was ruled competent to stand trial. He pleaded guilty in March 2009 to one count of criminal damage to property.[38]

Footnotes


References

  1. ^ First Care. "Abortion and Minnesota: What the Law Says". Pew Research. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  2. ^ "Views about abortion among adults in Minnesota". Pew Research. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  3. ^ "Unrestrict Minnesota". Gender Justice. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  4. ^ Wax-Thibodeaux, Emily (June 9, 2019). "In Alabama — where lawmakers banned abortion for rape victims — rapists' parental rights are protected". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  5. ^ Michaels, Samantha. "Alabama banned abortions. Then its lawmakers remembered rapists can get parental rights". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  6. ^ a b c d e Buell, Samuel (1991-01-01). "Criminal Abortion Revisited". New York University Law Review. 66: 1774–1831.
  7. ^ a b Adolescence, Committee On (2017-02-01). "The Adolescent's Right to Confidential Care When Considering Abortion". Pediatrics. 139 (2): e20163861. doi:10.1542/peds.2016-3861. ISSN 0031-4005. PMID 28115537.
  8. ^ Crosby, Margaret C.; English, Abigail (March 1991). "Mandatory parental involvement/judicial bypass laws: Do they promote adolescents' health?". Journal of Adolescent Health. 12 (2): 143–147. doi:10.1016/0197-0070(91)90457-w. ISSN 1054-139X.
  9. ^ "State Policy On Informed Consent for Abortion" (PDF). Guttmacher Policy Review. Fall 2007. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  10. ^ "State Abortion Counseling Policies and the Fundamental Principles of Informed Consent". Guttmacher Institute. 2007-11-12. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  11. ^ a b c d Lai, K. K. Rebecca (2019-05-15). "Abortion Bans: 8 States Have Passed Bills to Limit the Procedure This Year". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
  12. ^ "Minnesota Legislature - HF271 - 91st Legislature (2019–2020)". revisor.mn.gov. Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Retrieved February 13, 2019. Description: Abortion prohibited when a fetal heartbeat is detected with certain exceptions, and penalties provided.
  13. ^ "Timeline of Important Reproductive Freedom Cases Decided by the Supreme Court". American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved 2019-05-25.
  14. ^ a b c d e f Greenhouse, Linda (2005), Becoming Justice Blackmun, Times Books, pp. 196–197
  15. ^ a b Arndorfer, Elizabeth; Michael, Jodi; Moskowitz, Laura; Grant, Juli A.; Siebel, Liza (December 1998). A State-By-State Review of Abortion and Reproductive Rights. DIANE Publishing. ISBN 9780788174810.
  16. ^ Gould, Rebecca Harrington, Skye. "The number of abortion clinics in the US has plunged in the last decade — here's how many are in each state". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-05-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ businessinsider (2018-08-04). "This is what could happen if Roe v. Wade fell". Business Insider (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2019-05-24. Retrieved 2019-05-24. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  18. ^ "Here's Where Women Have Less Access to Planned Parenthood". Retrieved 2019-05-23.
  19. ^ Cates, Willard; Rochat, Roger (March 1976). "Illegal Abortions in the United States: 1972–1974". Family Planning Perspectives. 8 (2): 86. doi:10.2307/2133995. JSTOR 2133995. PMID 1269687.
  20. ^ "No. of abortions among women aged 15–19, by state of residence, 2013 by racial group". Guttmacher Data Center. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
  21. ^ "Views about abortion by state - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 2019-05-23.
  22. ^ "States pushing abortion bans have highest infant mortality rates". NBC News. Retrieved 2019-05-25.
  23. ^ a b c d "Abortion Incidence and Services in the United States, 1995-1996". Guttmacher Institute. 2005-06-15. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  24. ^ Jatlaoui, Tara C. (2017). "Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2014". MMWR. Surveillance Summaries. 66 (24): 1–48. doi:10.15585/mmwr.ss6624a1. ISSN 1546-0738. PMC 6289084. PMID 29166366.
  25. ^ Jatlaoui, Tara C. (2018). "Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2015". MMWR. Surveillance Summaries. 67 (13): 1–45. doi:10.15585/mmwr.ss6713a1. ISSN 1546-0738. PMC 6289084. PMID 30462632.
  26. ^ Jatlaoui, Tara C. (2019). "Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2016". MMWR. Surveillance Summaries. 68. doi:10.15585/mmwr.ss6811a1. ISSN 1546-0738.
  27. ^ Tribune, Chicago. "Timeline of abortion laws and events". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2019-05-23.
  28. ^ Francis Roberta W. "Frequently Asked Questions". Equal Rights Amendment. Alice Paul Institute. Archived from the original on 2009-04-17. Retrieved 2009-09-13.
  29. ^ "Guttmacher Data Center". data.guttmacher.org. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
  30. ^ McCann, Allison (May 23, 2017). "Seven states have only one remaining abortion clinic. We talked to the people keeping them open". Vice News. Retrieved 2019-05-23.
  31. ^ "Our Mission". Minnesota Family Foundation. Archived from the original on 31 August 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  32. ^ "Marriage Vow" (PDF). The Family Leader. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  33. ^ PETROSKI, WILLIAM (8 July 2011). "Santorum, Bachmann, sign Family Leader's marriage vow". DesMoines Register. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  34. ^ Falcone, Michael (12 December 2011). "Newt Gingrich Pledges 'Personal Fidelity to My Spouse'". ABC. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  35. ^ Travis, Shannon (21 November 2011). "Perry signs Family Leader's controversial marriage vow". CNN. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  36. ^ a b Jacobson, Mireille; Royer, Heather (December 2010). "Aftershocks: The Impact of Clinic Violence on Abortion Services". American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. 3: 189–223. doi:10.1257/app.3.1.189.
  37. ^ a b "Man charged with driving into Planned Parenthood facility". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  38. ^ a b Pat Pheifer, Cottage Grove man pleads guilty to driving SUV into clinic, Minneapolis Star-Tribune (March 26, 2009).
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