Andy Birkey's blog

VIDEO: Klobuchar Joins Senate Push for Women’s Health

2009-10-20T10:35:28-04:00

This article is reprinted as part of a partnership between the Center for Independent Media, Minnesota Independent and RH Reality Check. It was first published in the Minnesota Independent.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is one of several female Democratic senators demanding that health insurance disparities that impact women be eliminated as part of the health reform packages being debated in Congress. For the past two weeks, the senators have been ensuring the issues unique to women don’t get last in the vigorous debate.

Klobuchar recounted her own experiences with the health care industry on the Senate floor last week.

Let me tell my colleagues how I got interested in this issue. When my daughter was born, she was very sick. She couldn’t swallow. She was in intensive care. They thought she had a tumor. It was a horrendous moment for our family. I was up all night in labor, up all day trying to figure out what was wrong with her, and they literally kicked me out of the hospital — my husband wheeled me out in a wheelchair after 24 hours — because at that point in our country’s history, they had a rule; it was called driveby births. When a mom gave birth, she had to get kicked out of the hospital in 24 hours.

In a press conference, Klobuchar talked about how that experience drove her to get the law changed.

Klobuchar also said she was pleased that domestic abuse was being addressed by Congress.

“In nine states and the District of Columbia, women who are victims of domestic abuse, who have been victims of domestic abuse can be denied health care coverage because domestic abuse can be considered a preexisting condition,” she said. “That’s why I’m so glad one of the major, major proposals in this reform is to do something about pre-existing conditions.”

Seven other female senators are working to make the health reform package inclusive of women: Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; Barbara Boxer D-Calif.; Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; Mary Landrieu, D-La.; and Senator Kay Hagan, D-N.C.

The senators say one of the most important issues facing women’s access to health care is that women pay more in premiums but get less health care for the added cost. Things like pregnancy and domestic abuse are sometimes excluded as preexisting conditions.

Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, praised Klobuchar’s efforts.

“The health care debate continues to rage in Washington, and amendments limiting women’s access to reproductive health care are expected,” the group said on Friday. “Senator Klobuchar made it clear last week that women cannot be worse off after health care reform than they are today. Health care reform must improve our lives, not take away the rights we have fought so hard to win.”

Michelle Bachmann: "Pants on Fire!"

2009-10-01T17:18:41-04:00

On the House floor Wednesday night, Rep. Michele Bachmann warned that the health insurance reform package currently being debated by Congress would set up “sex clinics” in schools where students “taken away” to have abortions.

Bachmann’s information seems to have been gleaned from right-wing media outlets that earlier this year Politifact ruled as lies.

“We see no language in the three main versions of the bill that would allow school-based clinics, which have a long history of providing basic health services to underprivileged students, to provide abortions,” the site wrote. “Nor would the clinics even be new — they have been around for three decades. So we rate the claim Pants on Fire!”

Further, as The Hill notes, any clinics established by the bill would have to follow state and local laws regarding parental consent.

Video and transcript below:

But parents are going to excluded from Planned Parenthood as they write these clinics because the bill orders that these clinics protect patient privacy and student records. What does that mean? It means that parents will never know what kind of counsel and treatment that their children are receiving. And as a matter of fact, the bill goes on to say what’s going to go on — comprehensive primary health services, physicals, treatment of minor acute medical conditions, referrals to follow-up for specialty care — is that abortion? Does that mean that someone’s 13 year-old daughter could walk into a sex clinic, have a pregnancy test done, be taken away to the local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, have their abortion, be back and go home on the school bus that night? Mom and dad are never the wiser.

Bachmann To Raise Funds for Controversial Christian Punk Ministry

2009-10-01T16:18:04-04:00

This article is published in partnership with Minnesota Indpendent, Center for Independent Journalism, and RH Reality Check.

Rep. Michele Bachmann will be headlining a fundraiser in November for controversial ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCRBYCH).

Based in Annandale, Minn., the group has made a name for itself as an anti-drug Christian punk rock band that organizes motivational student assemblies to bring Christ to public schools. But over the last several years, parents and school administrators have complained that the ministry misrepresents itself, claiming that the group is not transparent about its Christian mission. And since schools pay using public funds, some are concerned that the group is violating the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state.

Bachmann will be the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for the group on Nov. 12 at a Bloomington hotel. Bachmann’s office did not return a request seeking comment about the event.

It won’t be Bachmann’s first time at a YCRBYCH fundraiser. At a Minneapolis hotel in October 2006, she offered a powerful prayer for the ministry and praised the group’s work of sharing the gospel in public schools.

“Lord, I thank you for what you have done at this ministry… how you are going to advance them from 260 schools a year, Lord, to 2,600 schools a year,” she said. “Lord, we ask thy faith that you would expand this ministry beyond anything the originators of this ministry could begin to think or imagine. Lord, the day is at hand! We are in the last days! The day is at hand, Lord, when your return will become nigh. Pour a double blessing, Lord, a triple blessing on this ministry.”

In an April 2009 broadcast on Christian radio station KKMS, the group acknowledged that it is going into public schools to evangelize.

“We are doing assemblies here, folks, just so you understand, we do public high school assemblies,” said one of the group’s members. “We are speaking to kids in our schools about the constitution, suicide prevention and our own testimony of how Christ turned our lives around in public schools so we can get the light into kids hands in public schools.”

Complaints around the Midwest

In school districts around the Midwest, school administrators have taken heat for inviting the ministry into schools.

In 2003, the group came to a Benton, Wis., high school. “They had a captive audience for their message, and that wasn’t right,” Benton Principal Gary Neis told the Dubuque Telegraph Herald. He was reportedly so upset that the ministry strayed from its anti-drug message that he held another assembly to apologize to the students.

“They talked about influencing and brainwashing people. Be wise to the fact that is what they were doing. They were using the same tactics,” Neis told the students at the assembly. Neis said he contacted other schools in the area and found that they had no idea that YCRBYCH was a Christian ministry.

In 2005, at a Eureka Springs, Ark., high school, students walked out of the assembly; afterward, the principal took heat from parents. According to the local paper, The Lovely Citizen, Eureka Springs superintendent Reck Wallis, said, “I take responsibility. We had no idea about their religious, right-wing message. They misrepresented their program. We want [Eureka Springs schools] to be open and all inclusive. … They won’t be back.”

At Pequot Lakes High School in central Minnesota in 2007, the group stirred controversy when students reportedly ran out of the assembly crying after the group showed graphic images of abortion and told the students that God wanted women to be subservient to men. John McDonald, Pequot Lakes High School Principal, told WCCO, “We were expecting something a bit different,” he said. “The thing we apologized to students for is the program wasn’t to the expectation that we thought it would be.”

Bradlee Dean

Also in 2007, the group performed in Phelps, Wis., causing an uproar among parents and administrators. “The school district administrator said she didn’t know You Can Run But You Cannot Hide was a Christian group until I told her,” said Paul Guequierre, a reporter for WJFW TV-12. “She showed me the lit from the group and there was no mention that the group was Christian.”

Indeed, the group does not mention God, Jesus, Christianity or any religion in the “Principal Packet” that it distributes to school administrators. According to the four-page document (pdf), founder Bradlee Dean’s “message hits on issues such as drugs, alcohol, suicide, our country, our veterans, our freedom, the Constitution, friends we choose, the influence of media, and day to day choices we make.” (The program’s website only references God once, in a promotion for founder Bradlee Dean’s book.)

When questioned by the Minnesota Independent about claims that the group doesn’t disclose the religious nature of the assemblies, Dean said, “78 percent of the American people are professing Christians. Are they, in their line of work, to wear ‘I am a Christian’ shirts?”

“It sounds like there is a lean toward discrimination in what you are asking,” he added.

Separation of church and state

While many have challenged that the group causes schools to run afoul of the separation of church and state, both Bachmann and YCRBYCH deny that the constitutional prohibition exists.

In fact, Bachmann urges people to give money to the organization for the stated purpose of bringing Christ into public schools.

“[Public schools] are teaching children that there is separation of church and state, and I am here to tell you that is a myth. That’s not true,” Bachmann said at the group’s 2006 fundraiser in Minneapolis. “And they explain to children in the public school system what a myth that is. And that’s what I love about this ministry … We want kids to come to the truth and that’s why this ministry is so absolutely vital. We need them in every public school classroom across the state to tell young people, ‘You Can Run But You Cannot Hide.’”

Schools pay the group thousands of dollars to put on the assemblies. “On average we ask $1,500 to $2,000 an assembly,” Dean told the Advocate, a paper in Annandale, Minn. (The group’s Web site says a three-hour assembly ranges from $3,000 to $5,000.)

Dean has similarly claimed that the Constitution does not call for church-state separation.

“Did you know that the phrase ’separation between church and state’ is nowhere in the Constitution, nor in the Declaration of Independence, and nowhere in the Bill of Rights?” he asked listeners of his radio program, called “School of Hard Knocks,” which is broadcast on KKMS.

Dean says that the ministry is being targeted by the government because it tells the truth. On his April 11 radio program, he recalled an incident a week earlier which he claimed an employee of the ministry was chased by a helicopter.

“There was a blue and white helicopter that flew down on top of her van as she was going to this [Wright County] Republican party convention. And then he swooped back down on her again.”

Bradlee said that helicopters frequently dive-bomb their tour bus with “helicopters flying up to the bus and pulling off.” He said, “What they are trying to do is criminalize the righteous.”

At the ministry’s 2007 fundraiser at the Minneapolis Hyatt, Dean elaborated on his fears of the government, as reported at the time by the Minnesota Independent.

“We passed out over 100,000 [religious] tracts in public high schools because God said,” Dean said. “Not because some tyrannical government wants to try telling us what we can say and what we can’t say, because we know what the Constitution says. We know who the problem is, nothing’s changed in two thousand years.”

Rural Women in Minnesota Face Obstacles to Health Care

2009-09-02T08:00:00-04:00

Women living in rural Minnesota face poor health outcomes according to a report released by Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota (PPMNS) on Wednesday. A lack of health insurance and clinics, along with factors like poverty, geographic isolation and even Minnesota’s extreme winters all impact the ability of rural women to access health care. The organization says that as Congress debates health care reform, the needs of rural women must be addressed.

“The data gathered by experts on the state and national level show what [Planned Parenthood] knows firsthand — that rural women are more likely to live in poverty, more likely to be uninsured or underinsured, and more likely to have limited health care resources available than are their urban counterparts,” said Sarah Stoesz, president of PPMNS.

In Minnesota, one in four women live in non-metropolitan areas, a rate higher than states that are traditionally seen as rural, such as Alabama, Texas and Utah. Forty percent of Minnesotans live in areas where there is no access to primary health clinics.

Getting to a health care clinic 100 miles away in the dead of winter can be a challenge in Minnesota. “Minnesota’s severe weather, coupled with limited public transportation options and rural roads in disrepair, can make accessing health care nearly impossible for rural residents,” the report said.

While Planned Parenthood serves low-income patients — statewide, 50 percent of patients are living in poverty — among clinics in greater Minnesota, 63 percent are below the poverty line. At the Planned Parent clinic in Thief River Falls, 75 percent of patients were living below the poverty line and at Willmar clinic that number was 61 percent.

Only 3 percent of Minnesotans accessing care at Planned Parenthood’s rural clinics could afford the care they received and half had no health insurance. In Moorhead, 54 percent of patients lacked health insurance; among Duluth residents, 53 percent were uninsured, and in St. Cloud, 49 percent had no health insurance.

Due to these factors, rural women in Minnesota are 30 percent more likely to be diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer than those living in urban and suburban areas. Forty-three of Minnesota’s counties have higher rates of teen pregnancy than the state average and all but two are in greater Minnesota. While rates of gonorrhea infections among women remained stable in urban and suburban areas, rural Minnesota was the only place where state officials saw in increase in cases.

Rural women also have higher rates of obesity, mental illness and suicide, nicotine addiction and substance abuse.

“Geography and economic status should not determine a woman’s health or her fate,” said Stoesz. “The demand for health care is urgent and the value of prevention, the cornerstone of Planned Parenthood services, is self-evident.”

Stoesz is urging Congress to include rural women’s needs, particularly those around reproductive health, as it debates health care reform. The group identifies three priorities to improve health for rural women: Access to affordable health care services for all women, including comprehensive reproductive health care, regardless of income; coverage for basic, preventive health care services that specifically impact women; and protections for trusted safety net providers on whom women depend for their care, particularly given the shortage of primary care providers in rural communities.

“The benefits of preventive care outweigh the costs from a public health perspective and a fiscal perspective,” Kathi Di Nicola, director of communications for PPMNS, told the Minnesota Independent. “For every dollar invested in preventive reproductive health care, over $5 is saved in the subsequent cost of unintended pregnancy.”

More than 90 percent of PPMNS’ patients in greater Minnesota are women, and they access the organizations services for a variety of reasons including reproductive health services and general health services such as diabetes screening and cholesterol checks.

While they haven’t necessarily seen an increase in patients during the recession, Di Nicola says they have seen “an uptick in patients saying they’ve just lost their jobs and insurance and are returning to us for care.”

In a press release accompanying the report, Stoesz urged local and national leaders not to overlook the health needs of rural women as the debate surrounding health reform intensifies.

“Improving the health status of rural women will require health systems that adequately consider and respond to the unique needs of rural women. As the nation discusses various models of health care reform, it is essential that any emerging proposals comprehensively address the complex needs faced by rural Minnesotans,” Stoesz wrote.

Abortion Foes Fund Rep. Bachman, Bash State Sen. Clark

2009-08-06T08:00:00-04:00

With more than a year to go until the general election, abortion is already becoming an issue in the 6th Congressional District race. An analysis of anti-abortion campaign donations finds that Rep. Michele Bachmann is one of the country’s top earners — and she’s delivered for her contributors on that issue. At the same time, local anti-abortion forces are already tarring Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) candidate State Sen. Tarryl Clark just a day after she announced her candidacy.

Bachmann is ranked third of 435 U.S. House members in total campaign contributions from anti-abortion interests, according to a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. Bachmann received $63,658 since she announced her run for Congress in 2005 — 3.5 times the amount given by abortion opponents to all other Minnesota House members combined. Only Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., who was first elected to Congress in 2002, and Chris Smith, R-N.J., who’s been in Congress since 1980, have raised more from the anti-abortion lobby, taking in $89,081 and $142,854 respectively.

Among Minnesota’s other House members, Reps. John Kline ($9,050), Collin Peterson ($6,307), and James Oberstar ($3,289) have received money from the anti-abortion lobby. Three other members — Reps. Betty McCollum ($11,900), Tim Walz ($19,400) and Keith Ellison ( $4,600) — have accepted gifts from abortion-rights groups.

Bachmann’s disproportionate share of contributions has paid off for her anti-abortion benefactors. She’s sponsored or cosponsored an impressive 13 bills restricting abortion rights so far this year. Among the bills, one includes funneling entitlement money to “abortion alternatives” programs and another that would ban race and sex discrimination against fetuses. Yet another would give 14th Amendment protections to an embryo or fetus.

Her efforts have earned her the support of Minnesota’s largest anti-abortion group, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, which all but endorsed Bachmann in a scathing attack on Sen. Tarryl Clark only a day after she launched her campaign to replace Bachmann.

“The voters in the 6th Congressional District need to know that Tarryl Clark is a radical anti-life candidate,” said MCCL executive director Scott Fischbach said in a statement on Tuesday. “Senator Clark has voted to use taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions — even cruel saline abortions!”

“From now until the election in 2010, MCCL will work tirelessly to make sure the voters know that it is Congresswoman Michele Bachmann who is willing to stand up and fight for the innocent unborn and their mothers, while Tarryl Clark supports even the most gruesome taxpayer funded abortions,” he said.

Dr. Maureen Reed, who is also seeking to defeat Bachmann, hasn’t taken a strong stance on abortion, either in the current campaign or as candidate for lieutenant governor in 2006.

Abortions Declined in Minnesota Last Year

2009-07-02T09:00:00-04:00

The number of abortions performed in Minnesota declined in 2008 for the second straight year and marked the lowest number in more than 30 years. Reproductive health advocates said the decline is due to access to birth control and education, while the state’s largest anti-abortion group says programs to persuade pregnant woman from having an abortion were responsible for the decline.

According to a report (PDF) released this week by the Minnesota Department of Health, 12,948 abortions were performed in 2008 – down from 13,843 in 2007 and the lowest number since 1975.

Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota said the decrease could be attributed to affordable access to birth control.

“The best way to sustain reductions in the need for abortion is to provide accessible, affordable birth control and accurate, fact based sexuality education to all Minnesotans,” said Kathi Di Nicola, PPMNS communications director. “Planned Parenthood continues to work with the legislature and in our clinics across the state to do just that.”

Di Nicola noted that 95 percent of the care PPMNS provides comes in the form of prevention. The organization provided more than 300,000 units of contraception, nearly 58,000 tests for sexually transmitted diseases, more than 20,000 breast cancer screenings and more than 17,000 cervical cancer screenings.

“The overall decline in abortion in nearly every category is positive news and a goal that PPMNS works toward every day in our clinics across the region,” she said.

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, said the decline was due to the Positive Alternatives program, a faith-based, state-funded program that urges women considering abortion to forgo the procedure.

“This report demonstrates that Positive Alternatives is working for women and their unborn babies,” said Scott Fischbach, executive director for MCCL.

While MCCL is openly hostile to PPMNS, Di Nicola offered an olive branch in working to reduce abortions in Minnesota through education and contraception.

“We again call on groups like the MCCL join to with us in taking tangible, common-sense steps to prevent unintended pregnancy and reduce the need for abortion in Minnesota,” she said.

Army of God Defends Driver in Health Clinic "Crash"

2009-05-22T09:00:00-04:00

Matthew Derosia was convicted late last week for ramming his car into the entrance of a Planned Parenthood clinic on Ford Parkway in St. Paul in January during an anti-abortion protest.

Derosia was sentenced to time served, but the state is seeking to have him permanently committed for mental illness. Derosia has faced at least two commitment proceedings in the last decade.

His family is opposing the current commitment, saying Derosia was only doing the Lord’s work.

In an email to the Minnesota Independent on Sunday, Derosia’s mother Georjean, came to his defense. “[It is] the state of Minnesota’s intention to LOCK UP my son for a non-violent protest against Planned Parenthood for THE REST OF HIS LIFE!!!”

Georgjean’s email was sent to anti-abortion activists soliciting funds to keep him out of full-time mental care.

“I agree he needs help and we are getting him the help he needs but without your help he will be lost to everyone forever. With Gods [sic] love we can get justice for this poor boy who was only doing what God asked him to do.”

Matthew Derosia pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 111 days time served and fined $50. He also must pay restitution to Planned Parenthood in the amount of $3,818.85.

The police report noted that after running a vehicle into the front of the clinic, Derosia was “holding a crucifix and shouting various Bible verses. ” He “refused to respond to police and continued to recite Bible verses and shout, ‘Close down the Auschwitz Death Camp.’”

He also told police that “he felt what he did was right and he would do it again if he were told to.”

The incident sparked condemnation from local anti-abortion leaders. Brian Gibson, executive director of Pro-Life Action Ministries, told KARE 11 at the time, “Not only do we not like this happening, we condemn this type of act. We’re against all violence,” Gibson said.

But the extreme wing of the anti-abortion movement has rallied to his defense.

Rev. Donald Spitz of the Army of God, a group that has expressed support for Derosia’s actions before, railed against Gibson.

“Brian Gibson, why did you condemn Matthew Derosia who only drive [sic] a van into a babykilling facility, yet accept women who actually murder their own children by abortion and have the blood of their own children on their hands?,” he wrote in an email to Gibson that’s posted on Spitz’s website.

“What is more important to the LORD Jesus Christ, to save babies about to be murdered in a babykilling abortion mill or the facade of that babykilling abortion mill? To you it is the facade of the babykilling abortion mill that needs protecting and not the babies being murdered.”

Minnesota Anti-Choice Group Credits State Program with Slight Drop in Abortion

2009-04-20T08:00:00-04:00

Minnesota’s largest anti-abortion group, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL), says state-funded anti-abortion programs are responsible for a drop in the number of abortions among low-income women. If the group’s assertion is correct, the programs cost taxpayers more than $200,000 per woman "successfully" treated.

Data released by the Minnesota Department of Health show a slight drop in abortions among women on medical assistance between 2006 and 2007, the most current year that data is available. Medical providers were reimbursed by the state for 3,914 procedures in 2007 compared to 3,937 in 2006, a drop of 0.6 percent.

MCCL says Positive Alternatives, a state program that encourages women to carry their pregnancy to term, was responsible for the decrease.

Positive Alternatives awards grants to 37 groups, many of which are religion-based. The Highland LifeCare Center, Inc., in St. Paul, for example, tells pregnant women, “Having an abortion may affect more than just your body and your mind — it may have an impact on your relationship with God. What is God’s desire for you in this situation? How does God see your unborn child? These are important questions to consider.”

In a press release titled, “Positive Alternatives helped to save lives, reduce taxpayer funded abortions in 2007,” MCCL executive director Scott Fischbach said, “Positive Alternatives is making a real difference for pregnant women in need. The DHS report is more proof that women are receiving the help they need to successfully face the challenges of unexpected pregnancy without resorting to abortion.”

But reproductive health advocates aren’t buying that reasoning.

“MCCL’s statement … is disingenuous at best and is probably due to a decrease in unintended pregnancies,” said Linnea House, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota.

House added that if MCCL is correct, then the figures demonstrate a colossal cost to taxpayers. The difference between 2006 and 2007 is 23 abortions among low-income women, and the Positive Alternatives program costs $4.75 million every two years, she pointed out.

“Their numbers show that this is an investment of $206,521 per woman,” said House. “By comparison, an investment in family planning programs, programs the MCCL has consistently fought against, helps nearly 50,000 women and every dollar invested will save the state at least $5 in return.”

Kathi Di Nicola, communications director for Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, agreed that the decrease is more likely attributable to family planning programs.

“We would attribute the decrease to fewer unintended pregnancies, which is likely the result of increased access to affordable, accessible family planning,” she said.

“One year’s data does not constitute a trend, but it is encouraging news for family planning providers,” she added.

House said the most effective state programs are those that prevent pregnancy in the first place.

“We know that family planning programs prevent unintended pregnancies and actually save the taxpayer money,” she said.

North Dakota Abortion Ban Could Have National Implications

2009-03-16T08:00:00-04:00

North Dakota legislators are proposing a law that could have national implications. Dubbed the Personhood bill, SF 1572 would grant every fertilized egg in the state full rights, and any intentional death of that fertilized egg would constitute murder. It’s already passed the North Dakota House and will be considered by an anti-abortion Senate. And while Gov. John Hoeven hasn’t spoken publicly about the bill, he is opposed to abortion.

“This sparsely populated rural state that’s proud of its conservative roots could fundamentally alter the rights of women across the country,” said Tim Stanley of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota (PPMNS). “We feel confident that the more people hear about 1572, the less comfortable they’ll feel about it.”

There’s a lot to be uncomfortable about, said Stanley.

The bill reads (PDF), “The state shall naturalize all preborn persons and shall afford to them all the privileges and immunities of state citizenship guaranteed in… the Constitution of North Dakota.”

The one privilege that North Dakota plans to deny fertilized eggs? “The state is not required to include preborn children in state and local censuses,” the bill reads.

But while the bill clarifies how to count fertilized eggs and fetuses for the census, it leaves many more questions open.

“It’s possible that this bill would could result in criminal prosecution for women who have a miscarriage,” said Stanley. “Under this language a miscarriage could be investigated for manslaughter or reckless abandonment.”

Stanley also pointed to North Dakota law that makes it illegal for two people to ride a bike built for one. If the Personhood bill passed, a pregnant woman could not legally ride a bike.

“We are making sure that as many North Dakotans as possible hear about this bill and its implications,” he said.

Rep. Dan Ruby, the Republican lawmaker from Minot who authored the bill, has made it clear that his intention with this bill is go all the way to the United States Supreme Court with a challenge to Roe v. Wade.

“I think North Dakota will be on the map to be the first state in recent years to mount a legitimate challenge to Roe v. Wade,” Ruby told the Bismarck Tribune in February.

But this week, he backed off a bit after his bill became a lightning rod in North Dakota politics. He said, “The bill does not contain language that even mentions abortion at all. It simply defines when life begins which, through scientific language, defines life to begin at conception. What is so harmful about that?”

But reproductive-rights advocates see plenty that is harmful in this legislation. “There are no life or health exceptions for women in this bill,” said Stanley. That could put the life of a woman in jeopardy in order to grant “rights” to a fertilized egg.

Four Minnesota Bills Attempt to Restrict Access to Abortion

2009-02-27T08:00:00-05:00

Minnesota’s anti-abortion forces are hoping a slate of bills will restrict access to abortion. Four bills have been offered this session, from outright bans on the procedure to data-collection mandates, but none of them stand a chance of passing with a pro-choice DFL leadership.

A slew of Republicans are proposing a bill that would increase the mandates for reporting abortions. Under HF 290, clinics and hospitals would be required to keep records on personal health information for 15 years. Information to be included: medical history, ultrasound copies, sex and age of the fetus and number of fetuses terminated, as well as each patient’s name, address and date of birth.

A patient must be notified prior to the procedure that her personal information will be retained for 15 years. In recent years, several high-profile cases have put patients’ privacy in jeopardy, including overzealous politicians using abortion records for anti-abortion causes.

The bill is sponsored by Reps. Joyce Peppin, R-Rogers; Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake; Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar; Bob Dettmer, R-Forest Lake; Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City; Steve Drazkowski, R-Wabasha; Torrey Westrom, R-Elbow Lake; Dan Severson, R-Sauk Rapids; and Ron Shimanski-R, Silver Lake.

Sen. Amy Koch, R-Buffalo, is the sole sponsor in the Senate (SF 216).

Another bill (HF 1057, SF 904) would require all abortions in the state to be performed within 20 miles of a hospital. It would charge a physician who does perform an abortion outside the 20-mile radius with a misdemeanor.

Republican Rep. Laura Brod of New Prague is joined by Republican Sens. Pat Pariseau of Farmington, Michelle L. Fischbach of Paynesville, Joe Gimse of Willmar, Steve Dille of Dassel and David Hann of Eden Prairie in support of the 20-mile restriction bill.

Republicans, along with a lone DFLer, have offered a bill banning a rare abortion procedure called saline amniocentesis abortion. Sens. Amy Koch, R-Buffalo; Pat Pariseau, R-Farmington; Michelle L. Fischbach, R-Paynesville; Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove; and Claire A. Robling, R-Jordan; are joined by Rep. Patti Fritz, DFL-Faribault.

Saline amniocentesis abortion is a form of instillation abortion where abortion-inducing fluid is injected into the amniotic sac. Instillation accounts for 0.8 percent of abortions performed and saline accounts for only about 10 percent of those procedures, with urea and prostaglandin used in other cases.

To say that saline amniocentesis is a rare procedure is an understatement. So why are Republicans and their lone DFL colleague pushing the legislation? It would constitute a small victory for boosting anti-abortion activists morale.

Another bill would put abortion services out of the reach of low-income women. HF 1059 and SF 906 says, “Funding for state-sponsored health programs shall not be used for funding abortions, except to the extent necessary for continued participation in a federal program.”

The bill is being pushed by Sen. Claire Robling, R-Jordan, and Rep. Mary Ellen Otremba, DFL-Long Prairie.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has already declared it unconstitutional to restrict state funding for abortion services under the 1995 decision Doe v. Gomez, so even if the bill were passed into law, it is unclear whether it could survive a constitutional challenge.

Abortion Politics Trump Social Justice at Catholic School

2009-02-11T08:00:00-05:00

Minnesota Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL-Richfield, was stripped of an award from the Academy of Holy Angels (AHA) last week because of his votes on abortion, the Catholic school said. The candidate for Minnesota governor was to be presented with AHA Activities Hall of Fame honor, but when the school learned of his Thissen’s voting record, they rescinded the award.

“[T]he nominating committee was not aware of Mr. Thissen’s voting record in the Minnesota Legislature regarding pro-abortion issues,” the school said in a letter to alumni.

“When I heard about this, I really was disappointed, not so much because of the award, but because the award was for something that had nothing to with my position on giving women the choice of what to do during a pregnancy,” Thissen told the Star Tribune.

Thissen told the school his support for social justice issues like ensuring health insurance for all children and advocating for the poor, the disabled and the elderly should count for something.

“I had imagined that the high school I attended — the institution that taught me the importance of social justice in Minnesota — would have valued and been honored by that work,” he said.

But among the Catholic hierarchy, supporting those that have the least in society cannot mitigate any support a politician shows for the “non-negotiable five”: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning and “homosexual” marriage.

So, which votes tarnished Thissen’s otherwise impressive achievements in the eyes of the religious right?

In 2008, he voted in support of a bill to allow state funding for stem cell research. He voted against a bill to prohibit any government funds from going to an organization that offers abortion. He voted against several overrides of Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher when she deemed anti-abortion amendments not germane to certain bills. In other words, anti-abortion legislators put bills and amendments forward that had no chance of passing in order to use them against pro-choice legislators.

“As a result of Mr. Thissen’s public position to actively support pro-abortion issues, AHA has chosen not to include him among this year’s inductees to the AHA Activities Hall of Fame,” read the school’s letter. “We have done so, not because we do not appreciate his past achievements, but because we cannot endorse his legislative actions relating to abortion.”

While anti-abortion activists rejoiced at the school’s decision, one lone voice praised Thissen. Frank Burton, founder of the Circle of Reason, thanked Thissen for taking a stand on the issues. Thissen’s “courageous refusal to enforce Catholic doctrine upon the general public, and whose recognition that morality is compatible with prochoice policy, led to his being stripped of his Hall of Fame Alumnus Award by his former high school.”

With STI Rates Rising, Sex Ed Bill Returns to Minnesota Legislature

2009-02-03T08:00:00-05:00

Government health officials in Minnesota testified last Monday that rates of sexually transmitted diseases are increasing, particularly among urban women, and that a proposed bill to increase funding for testing, treatment and education might stem the steady rise in rates and curb teen pregnancy.

The bill was heard by the Health, Housing and Family Security Committee, where it passed by a voice vote on Monday.

Senate File 273 includes the Comprehensive Family Life and Sexuality Education language that almost made it to Gov. Tim Pawlenty last year. That bill would have mandated a baseline for sex education in Minnesota’s public schools. As part of last year’s negotiations, Pawlenty told legislators they’d need to hash out the details of the bill with the conservative Minnesota Family Council. Needless to say, the bill was withdrawn during conference committee.

This year’s version, coauthored by DFL Sens. John Marty (Roseville) and Sandy Rummel (White Bear Lake), has similar provisions, but contains an addition: funds for testing and treatment for chlamydia and gonorrhea in the form of family planning special project grants similar to those Pawlenty proposes to cut from the state budget.

David Johnson, epidemiologist for the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support, said the city’s chlamydia rate is three times higher than elsewhere in Minnesota. If left unchecked, chlamydia can wreak havoc on a woman’s reproductive organs, and infection of a newborn infant through childbirth can lead to blindness.

Because some communities are seeing such high rates, aggressive action in needed, Johnson said. “The amount of disease in the community, the rate is so high that it is virtually sustaining,” he said. “In these communities, we need targeted screening in order to bring rates down.”

Peter Carr, who heads the STD and HIV Program at the Minnesota Department of Health, said the under-served communities need the most targeting. “One of the defining characteristics of STDs in Minnesota is the disparities in communities of color. They have rates 45 times higher than for whites.”

The funding in the bill is aimed to target extra resources to those communities that are most impacted by high STD rates. But that doesn’t mean suburbs are a safe haven.

Said Kathy Wick of the Dakota County Public Health Department, “I am here to dispel any myths that living in the suburbs protects you from STDs.”

Wick argues for increased education in those areas. “It’s not for lack of health resources, money or insurance that we have an STD problem in Dakota County,” she said. “It’s a lack of knowledge.”

Experts testified that the current sex education programs in schools are a patchwork, with schools dedicating differing amounts of time to the topic and it from an abstinence-until-marriage model — a model that numerous studies has shown to be ineffective.

Advocates for the bill say that educating young people now will save the state money later. Deb Wilkens-Costello of St. Paul’s Family Tree Clinic predicts that Minnesota will find benefits from a consistent sex ed curriculum that reduces teenage pregnancy.

“The state would feel an immediate impact to Medicare and welfare costs for years to come,” she said. “The state spends $120 million per year for teenage births.”

With a huge budget deficit and a governor with close religious right ties, Sen. John Marty said the bill likely won’t pass. But still he is hopeful.

“We can’t afford not to make the expenditure.”

Minnesota Gov. Pawlenty's Budget Slashes Family Planning Funds

2009-02-02T08:00:00-05:00

The budget proposed Tuesday by Gov. Tim Pawlenty would cut $2 million from the Family Planning Special Projects (FPSP), a grant program that funds health departments, nonprofits and tribal governments that provide family planning services to low-income Minnesotans. The cut amounts to a 20 percent reduction.

“All women, regardless of economic status, must have the same opportunity to access health care, plan and space healthy pregnancies,” said Sarah Stoesz, president of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. “Strong family planning is good health care policy, good public policy and makes good sense from both a fiscal and a social perspective.”

“As more and more Minnesota families lose jobs and insurance coverage, the governor should not stand between some of the most economically challenged women in the state and the health care they need to build stronger futures,” she said.

Family planning grants total $4.2 million a year.

Pawlenty says the programs can be cut because Minnesota has qualified for a Medicaid family planning program. “With the anticipated growth in persons receiving services through [Medicaid's] Family Planning Waiver, the reduction of Family Planning Special Project grant funds is not anticipated to have an impact on unintended pregnancies.”

But the Medicaid program would place greater restrictions on who could access subsidized family planning services and which agencies would be able to serve at-risk clients.

Seeking A 'Third Way': Inauguration of Obama May Bring Unity

2009-01-20T08:00:00-05:00

A coalition of progressive and evangelical leaders are calling on Congress and President-elect Barack Obama to work toward ending the culture war and finding common ground on issues like gay rights, abortion, immigration and torture. Organized by the think tank Third Way, the coalition announced its road map to ending the culture war, called “Come Let Us Reason Together” (PDF), and has already held meetings with congressional leaders, progressive organizations and evangelical churches.

The central aim of the agenda is to find areas of mutual agreement among evangelicals and progressives. For gay rights, that means a focus on employment nondiscrimination laws for the LGBT community with an exemption for religious institutions. In reproductive health, it means finding ways to reduce the need for abortions by “preventing unintended pregnancies, supporting pregnant women and new families, and increasing support for adoption.”

The agenda takes an encompassing approach to immigration: “We agree that we need secure, compassionate, and comprehensive immigration reform. We support policies that create an earned path to citizenship and protect families, while securing our borders and treating American taxpayers fairly.”

Torture is one area where both sides seem to have found common ground. The coalition rejects torture as un-American and immoral.

Among the dozens of evangelical leaders who have signed on is Tony Jones of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis. In his letter of support he wrote, “My hope is that President-elect Obama and the new Congress will embrace this governing agenda, which includes policies that represent real progress on historically divisive issues: reducing abortions and ensuring workplace equality for gay and lesbian persons.” Jones continued, “Together, this growing group of faithful persons represents a new path forward in America that models a positive religious presence in the public square.”

Tony JonesAnother signatory is Paul de Vries, a member of the board of the National Association of Evangelicals. “There is one Lord Jesus Christ, and he has many issues,” wrote de Vries. “Tragically, while the Democratic and Republican parties each have at least an attenuated sense of some of his issues — each party seems tone-deaf to some others. Nowhere has the failure to be faithful to Truth and to listen to one another been more acute than on issues underlying the so-called ‘culture wars.’”

During a recent conference call with reporters, a number of evangelical leaders explained why they agreed to be a part of this effort to end the culture war. Probably the most profound example was Jonathan Merritt, founder of the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative.

“As a committed Southern Baptist, I know all too well the ‘culture war’ mentality. It is a mentality that often speaks without listening, divides rather than unites and promotes destructive partisanship,” he said. “At the same time, I am proud of the unwavering moral stances that conservative Christians, including Southern Baptists, have taken. We remain committed to important issues like the traditional marriage and protecting life conception.”

He continued, “Yet conservative Christians must also live out the other tenets of our faith, including compassion, charity, human dignity and the pursuit of peace. Therefore, I support this agenda because I am a Southern Baptist, not in spite of that fact.”

Abortion Debate Splits Minnesota's Capitol

2009-01-19T08:00:00-05:00

Perhaps the most contentious political issue in the Minnesota Capitol remains abortion. And despite a budget deficit topping the legislative agenda, proponents of a woman's right to choose and opponents of legalized abortion will be putting forward initiatives and playing politics to advance their causes in the coming months.

The divide doesn't split neatly by party. Even with a DFL-dominated legislature, anti-abortion and pro-choice numbers are close, as many greater Minnesota DFLers side with Republicans on the issue. Perhaps no other issue could cause a DFLer to break ranks and vote against the re-election of House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, but that's what happened last week when DFL Rep. Mary Ellen Otremba from Long Prairie was the lone DFL objector because Kelliher is pro-choice and Otremba anti-abortion.

Pro-choice advocates see an opportunity this year to promote family-planning programs. Anti-abortion groups look to stop taxpayer funds for such initiatives and put controversial bills up for a vote.

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life launches its legislative agenda each year at the March for Life at the Capitol on the anniversary of the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion. Each year the event brings out big-name politicians. Last year featured Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann. Democratic Reps. James Oberstar and Collin Peterson often send letters of support that are read to the gathered crowd. It's rare that Gov. Tim Pawlenty doesn't make an appearance.

This year, MCCL has an agenda that includes protecting Positive Alternatives, a state-funded program that helps women with unintended pregnancies find alternatives to abortion. The group says that the program has helped reduce the rate of abortion in the state. Supporters fear its funding might be cut in order to close the state's budget deficit.

With little possibility of moving out of DFL-dominated committees, several other MCCL initiatives serve a different purpose: to embarrass pro-choice legislators in swing districts. A ban on saline abortions tops their agenda. This rarely used abortion technique has fallen out of favor with most physicians and constitutes 0.8 percent of procedures in the United States.

The bill to ban the procedure, which was introduced last session, didn't make it out of committee. But the MCCL often cites votes against it, either in committee or if it makes it to a floor vote, in its campaign literature.

MCCL representatives declined to talk with the Minnesota Independent about the group's legislative agenda or their take on what the session has in store for the anti-abortion movement.

On its Web site, the group claimed it had achieved "nearly all pro-life" goals in the 2008 elections, increasing the number of state legislators opposed to abortion and defeating pro-choice legislators.

Tim Stanley, senior director of government and public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, explained the strategy behind a bill such as a saline abortion ban:

"They use these to try and make legislators look bad. That's been their agenda for some time. They offer these bills that have no chance of passing and then use the votes against opponents."

And, despite a strong year for progressive voters, the strategy worked.

"They ran campaigns against [Rep.] Ken Tschumper [DFL-La Crescent] and [Rep.] Shelley Madore [DFL-Apple Valley] saying they took ‘19 votes to kill babies,'" said Stanley. "They make it difficult for people in close legislative districts."

The MCCL Web site says the group targeted Tschumper and Madore because of their efforts to de-fund Positive Alternatives.

With a looming budget battle, fiscal issues will take priority in the politics of abortion. Planned Parenthood hopes to save the Prevention First Initiative, a state-funded program that provides family planning services as a tool to prevent abortion and unintended pregnancy. It's a program signed into law in 2007 by Pawlenty, who is a strong supporter of MCCL.

"I give the governor credit for that one," said Stanley. "I think the governor recognizes that you save money in the long term when you make an investment to prevent unintended pregnancy." Stanley said programs like Prevention First save $4 in social services costs for every dollar spent.

With a budget battle in which leaders say "everything is on the table," Stanley hopes to keep the program going. He says that 86 percent of the families and individuals have low incomes and are able to take advantage of the program at little or no cost.

For both sides, the Legislature is close. The Senate has a more pro-choice lean, while the House is closer with several DFLers whose commitment to either side is questionable and whose votes could make the difference. In short, the politics of abortion will remains highly contested in St. Paul.