MINNEAPOLIS – A lawsuit filed in federal court last Friday seeks to invalidate Minnesota laws protecting access to abortion, arguing that they violate the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Plaintiffs argue that the laws terminate parental rights without due process.
Women are not informed of their rights when it comes to the procedure, the lawsuit alleges, resulting in thousands of “involuntary” abortions each year.
The lawsuit, filed by the Women’s Life Care Center, the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates and several women who have undergone abortions, comes after Minnesota Democrats passed a law to protect abortion in the wake of the nullification of Roe v .Wade and a 2022 court. The ruling overturned state restrictions on abortion services and eliminated a mandatory 24-hour waiting period. In April 2023, the Minnesota Court of Appeals rejected an appeal attempt the decision.
According to the filing, Minnesota’s current abortion laws do not provide any due process or equal protection protections in the termination of the relationship between mother and child.
Among those charged are Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison; Gov. Tim Walz; Department of Human Services Commissioner Jodi Harpstead; Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota; Planned Parenthood North Central States; Red River Women’s Clinic and several other physicians and health officials.
“Minnesota has implemented, administered and enforced by various state officials, a legal and regulatory system that delegates the state’s function of terminating the rights and interests of a pregnant mother in her relationship with her child to defendants…all of whom have interests in direct conflict with that of the pregnant mother and the child she wants,” the lawsuit said.
The Minnesota attorney general’s office said it will respond to the lawsuit in court.
The Department of Human Services said it does not comment on pending litigation.
WCCO has reached out to the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, Walz’s office and Planned Parenthood North Central States for comment but has not heard back.
“It’s about women’s rights and what it boils down to is that some of the greatest rights that mothers have throughout their lives are being destroyed. The complaint sets out some of that,” said Harold Cassidy, one of the lawyers of the plaintiffs, said in a statement to WCCO.
Women terminate their pregnancies under duress or pressure, the lawsuit alleges, and there should be more safeguards in place to ensure women voluntarily undergo the procedure, including a full hearing and advance counseling that provides information about their rights and other available resources.
Three women, who all say they were victims of abortions they did not want, are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit. According to court documents, all of the women were pressured by the child’s father to undergo the procedure and allegedly received no advice or assistance from their abortion providers.
The lawsuit demands that abortion providers stop operating under “current post-repeal abortion laws” until laws are put in place that do not violate the 14th Amendment and ensure that the patient fully understands the process.
“The fundamental argument in this lawsuit is that they want to characterize abortion as a termination of parental rights under constitutional law,” said University of Minnesota law professor Jill Hasday.
Pregnancy support centers
Much of the lawsuit involves the role of pregnancy resource centers such as Dakota Hope Clinic and Women’s Life Care Center, two of the plaintiffs. The lawsuit alleges that these centers are “protectors of the 14th Amendment rights of pregnant mothers,” and that the state is working with abortion providers to thwart “efforts to protect them.”
In August 2022, Ellison issued a consumer warning against crisis pregnancy centers, saying they “may masquerade as reproductive health care clinics despite not providing consumers with comprehensive reproductive health care,” and that pregnant women should instead consult a licensed reproductive health care provider.
The consumer alert cited a study showing that more than 90% of pregnancy resource centers do not employ a licensed physician and more than 95% do not provide prenatal or wellness care to pregnant women.
The lawsuit claims that much of the warning contains false information and is harmful to the rights and interests of the mothers.
The lawsuit alleges that abortion providers have waged “war” on pregnancy resource centers because the centers result in a loss of so-called abortion sales. It goes on to say that Minnesota’s abortion laws harm the financial, reputational and professional interests of pregnancy centers.
Abortion in Minnesota today
Access to abortion is protected by a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court decision a state law that guarantees a ‘fundamental right’ to the method.
Minnesota officials have touted the state as one haven for abortion seekers and providers – having one ‘shield law’ designed to protect people who come to the state for access and the doctors who perform the procedure. Additionally, the number of out-of-state abortion patients increased from 9% in 2020 to 30% in 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
The Minnesota House in May adopted the Equal Rights Amendment which protects “making and carrying out decisions on all matters relating to one’s own pregnancy or the decision to become or remain pregnant.” That amendment will go to voters in 2026.
What’s next
Jill Hasday, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, said she expects similar lawsuits to appear in federal court in the future.
“For the anti-abortion movement, overturning Roe in 2022 is not the end, but the middle,” she said. “Their ultimate goal is to make abortion illegal throughout the United States, either through federal law or through a federal court ruling that abortion violates the U.S. Constitution.”
Each statement will take some time. Hasday says it could be months, if not years, before the case is heard in federal court.
“It is very difficult to predict the future, but my own prediction is that the lawsuit is extremely unlikely to succeed, in part because of the many differences between abortion and involuntary termination of parental rights,” Hasday said. “Don’t overlook this case because this is the case that is going to end legal abortion in Minnesota.”
