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2024 UnRestrict Minnesota Reproductive Freedom Legislative Agenda

Building on historic progress—and realizing an expansive vision for reproductive + gender freedom

Together, we have systematically dismantled barriers anti-abortion extremists and politicians have been building for five decades to limit Minnesotans’ reproductive health care options.

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. We have made possible a brighter, fairer, safer, and more equitable future for full-spectrum reproductive health care in Minnesota.

There is still more work to be done to fully realize the promise of reproductive freedom in Minnesota. This is our roadmap for keeping up the momentum we have built, expanding on the progress we have made, and fighting back against the attacks we know will come.

2024 Goals +
Legislative Priorities

1. Fortify Protections for Gender + Reproductive Freedom

Our first priority in 2024 must be to defend and build on the progress we have made by enshrining the strongest possible protections for gender and reproductive freedom in our state Constitution—establishing Minnesota as a refuge and safe haven for all people here and beyond whose rights and freedoms have been imperiled by the extremist attacks running rampant across the United States. At the same time, we must continue to root out restrictions and biases hidden in our statutes, and ensure that our legislative code cannot be weaponized against reproductive freedom.

Legislative Priorities:

Pass the Minnesota Equal Rights Amendment for inclusion on the 2026 ballot.

  • We must guarantee everyone in Minnesota the strongest possible protections against discrimination by the state based on race, color, national origin, ancestry, disability, or sex—including pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation—no matter who’s sitting in the governor’s office, the state legislature, or the courts.

2. Remove the Roadblocks to Affordable + Accessible Abortion Care

Limited access and lack of affordability are keeping too many Minnesotans from getting the care they need, when they need it. These barriers hurt Minnesotans and strain the resources of providers and community organizations trying to support patients—and we must eliminate them.

Legislative Priorities:

Pass the Abortion Coverage Act, mandating insurance coverage for abortion care in all Minnesota state and private health plans.

  • People should be able to use the health insurance they are paying for—but today, health insurance companies can pick and choose whether or not to cover abortion care, or under what circumstances they do cover it.
  • The Abortion Coverage Act would mandate that all health insurance companies include abortion coverage in their health plans, starting in 2025—providing coverage for abortion care without added costs to patients through co-insurance, cost-sharing, or deductibles.
  • Excluding abortion care from insurance coverage is just another way of discriminating against patients who need it and playing politics with health care. It’s time to end it once and for all.

Close the financial gaps for struggling reproductive health care clinics.

  • We need a sustainable ecosystem of abortion providers in Minnesota to address the needs of Minnesotans, and the people turning to Minnesota clinics in growing numbers as their own states have enacted extreme abortion bans and restrictions.
  • The majority of patients served by clinics that provide abortion care are covered by Medical Assistance/Medicaid—but current Medicaid reimbursements cover less than half of the cost of providing abortion care. This is unsustainable, and we must increase the reimbursement rate to bring it into alignment with the real cost of providing care.
  • Funding gaps have contributed to clinic closures, lack of access and longer wait times. One-time funding is urgently needed to help ensure that clinics can stay open and that Minnesotans and people traveling from out of state can continue to get the care they need without delay.

3. Promote Healthy Families + Advance Reproductive Justice

Our vision for the future is founded on the principles of reproductive justice—the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. This vision is expansive, encompassing many more legislative needs than can be addressed in a single session—including state support for improved and expanded health care, child care, paid family and medical leave, food security, public education, psychological and emotional care, assistance for all economically insecure people, gun control and the abatement of violence of all kinds. In the 2024 Legislative Session, we support the following measures aimed at promoting healthy families and advancing reproductive justice.

Legislative Priorities:

Mandate insurance coverage in all Minnesota state and private health plans for a full range of gender-affirming care and reproductive health care.

  • Too many health plans currently leave out essential gender and reproductive health care services. To ensure equitable access, we must treat these services like all other essential health care and ensure in all insurance plans coverage for:
    • Gender affirming care
    • Full range of contraception, including over-the-counter birth control and vasectomy
    • Anesthesia for IUD services
    • IVF and infertility treatments
    • Over-the-counter PEP/PREP

Pass the Uniform Parentage Act.

  • Update Minnesota’s parenting laws to address needs for LGBTQ+ families, specifically around recognizing both same-sex parents as birth parents on legal documentation.

Ban pelvic and breast exams on unconscious patients without consent.

  • Training medical students to perform pelvic and breast exams is essential to their education and future practice, but these exercises are too often performed on patients under anesthesia who have only consented to examination by their health care providers—not by students. Preserving and protecting the bodily autonomy of all patients requires mandatory patient consent for any such examination.

Implement paid family leave.

Implement comprehensive sex and health education standards.

Pass Keeping Black Families Together.

Support maternal morbidity studies.

Pass the Certified Midwife Practice Act.

Expand Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST).