Abortion advocates aim to overturn informed consent, parental notification requirements
By Paul Stark, Communications Associate, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL)
A potentially devasting lawsuit filed in Ramsey Country District Court challenges numerous abortion-related laws in Minnesota. The suit aims to overturn Minnesota’s Woman’s Right to Know law, parental notification law, and abortion reporting laws, among others.
“This is a very extreme and far-reaching lawsuit,” says MCCL Executive Director Scott Fischbach. “It targets reasonable, commonsense laws that have been in place for decades and that have help thousands of people.”
The lawsuit was brought by two abortion practitioners and the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis, who are represented by the pro-abortion legal advocacy groups Gender Justice and the Lawyering Project.
“Women have a right to informed consent,” says Fischbach. “Parents should be notified when their minor children are undergoing an abortion. Minnesotans should know about how abortion is practiced in our state. Yet this lawsuit seeks to undermine all of this.”
The lawsuit cites the Minnesota Supreme Court’s Doe v. Gomez decision in 1995 as support for its assertion that Minnesota’s laws are unconstitutional. The Gomez ruling claimed that the state Constitution includes a right to abortion and requires taxpayer funding of abortion.
“Minnesota’s mainstream abortion laws are not inconsistent with the state Constitution,” says Fischbach. “They empower women, save the lives of unborn children, and have the support of most Minnesotans. MCCL is committed to doing everything we can to save our existing laws.”