In July 2022, just two weeks after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, the Minnesota district court presiding over a case brought by UnRestrict Minnesota coalition partners ruled several Minnesota abortion restrictions unconstitutional and permanently blocked their enforcement, including:
- a ban on qualified advance-practice clinicians providing abortion care
- a requirement forcing patients to delay their abortion care by at least 24 hours after consulting with a healthcare provider
- a requirement that young people notify both parents before they can receive abortion care
- a requirement forcing abortion providers to give irrelevant and misleading information to their patients
- a ban on the provision of second-trimester abortion care outside of hospitals
- regulations that subject abortion providers to felony criminal penalties for minor regulatory infractions.
Then, in the historic 2023 legislative session, the champions of reproductive freedom in the state legislature — voted in by Minnesotans who turned out in huge numbers in the 2022 midterm elections to elect the state’s first-ever pro-reproductive-freedom legislative majority — delivered on their mandate through a series of laws passed and enacted that have significantly strengthened abortion rights, expanded abortion access, and instituted strong protections for everyone who seeks, provides, or helps someone get abortion care in Minnesota.
New laws passed and enacted in 2023 include:
- The Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act — enshrining in Minnesota law every person’s right to make and act on the full spectrum of decisions available to them regarding their pregnancies and their reproductive health care, without government interference
- The Reproductive Freedom Defense Act — protecting everyone who seeks, provides, or helps someone get abortion care in Minnesota from legal action and criminal prosecution by anti-abortion activists and politicians from out of state.
- Health and Finance Omnibus Legislation — repealing the vast majority of Minnesota’s unjust and unconstitutional anti-abortion restrictions (including a requirement that doctors deliver state-mandated anti-abortion propaganda, a mandatory 24-hour waiting period for patients seeking abortion care, and a measure that outlawed abortions performed by advanced-practice registered nurses and other trained, licensed, qualified providers), eliminating some of the most invasive requirements of a law that previously forced abortion providers to report to the state an exhaustive list of personal details about abortion patients, zeroing out the budget for a state program that previously funneled $3 million in taxpayer money annually to so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” that use misinformation and coercive practices to actively discourage people from seeking abortion care, and increasing the Medical Assistance reimbursement rate for providers offering family planning services and abortion care by 20 percent.
Bottom line: Today the right and ability of everyone in Minnesota to get abortion care and other essential reproductive services stand stronger and better protected than they have in decades — but there is still much more work to be done to truly fulfill the promise of reproductive freedom for all.
Read on in this FAQ to learn more about our objectives and priorities for advancing reproductive health, rights, and justice in the 2024 legislative session and beyond.