History
Legislative history
In the 1950s, the state legislature passed a law stating that a woman who had an abortion or actively sought one (regardless of whether she went through with it) was guilty of a criminal offense. [13] Parental consent laws passed by Massachusetts and Minnesota in the 1980s created over 12,000 petitions to bypass consent. Of these, 21 were denied and half of these denials were overturned on appeal. [14] [15]
The state was one of 23 states in 2007 to have a detailed abortion-specific informed consent requirement. [16] Arkansas, Minnesota and Oklahoma all require that women seeking abortions after 20-weeks be verbally informed that the fetus may feel pain during the abortion procedure despite a Journal of the American Medical Association conclusion that pain sensors do not develop in the fetus until between weeks 23 and 30. [17] The state legislature was one of four states nationwide that tried, and failed, to pass an early abortion ban in 2012 (often called a "fetal heartbeat bill" by proponents). [18] It was also introduced in 2019 by Representative Tim Miller. [19]
In 2018, the state was one of eleven where the legislature introduced a bill that would have banned abortion in almost all cases. It did not pass. [18] The state legislature was one of ten states nationwide that tried to unsuccessfully pass a "heartbeat bill" in 2018. Only Iowa successfully passed such a bill, but it was struck down by the courts. [18] As of May 14, 2019, the state prohibited abortions after the fetus was viable, generally some point between weeks 24 and 28 in gestation. This period was defined by the US Supreme Court in their landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade . [18]
Protect Reproductive Options Act
In January 2023, the Minnesota Legislature passed the Protecting Reproductive Options Act to "explicitly protect and codify abortion rights" within Minnesota law. Tim Walz, the Governor of Minnesota, signed the bill into law on January 31, 2023. [20] [21]
Judicial history
In a 1894 case on abortion, the Minnesota Supreme Court said, "As a first impression, it may seem to be an unsound rule that one who solicits the commission of an offense, and willingly submits to its being committed upon her own person, should not be deemed an accomplice, while those whom she has thus solicited should be deemed principal criminals in the transaction. But in cases of this kind the public welfare demands the application of this rule, and its exceptions from the general rule seems to be justified by the wisdom of experience. The wife, then, in this case, was not, within the rules of the law, an accomplice. She was the victim of the cruel act which resulted in her death. Misguided by her own desires, and mistaken in her belief, she, by the advice of the defendant, submitted to his treatment, willing, it may be; but the desire of one, and the criminal act of the other, resulted in the death of one, and the imprisonment of the other." [13]
Roe v. Wade
The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester. [13] However, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization , No. 19-1392 , 597 U.S. ___(2022) later in 2022. [22] [23]
Hodgson v. Minnesota
The 1990 US Supreme Court case Hodgson v. Minnesota said that parental consent can cause danger for minors seeking abortions if physical, emotional or sexual abuse is already present. [14] [24] The case concerned a Minnesota law that required notifying both parents of a minor before she could undergo an abortion; it also contained a judicial bypass provision designed to take effect only if a court found it necessary. [25] Dr. Jane Hodgson, a Minneapolis gynecologist, challenged the law. The Eighth Circuit had ruled that the law would have been unconstitutional without a judicial bypass option. [25] While Justice Stevens delivered a majority opinion for one of the holdings, there were five votes for each of two holdings, with Justice O'Connor proving as the decisive vote for each. [25] Justices Stevens, Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun and O'Connor formed a majority holding that the two-parent notice requirement by itself was unconstitutional. [25] Justice O'Connor believed that the two-parent requirement entailed risk to a pregnant teenager; she also argued that the rule failed to meet even the lowest standard of judicial review, a rationality standard. [25] She joined the Court's more conservative Justices (Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices White, Scalia and Kennedy), to form a majority for the law being valid with the judicial bypass; Justice Kennedy had pointed out the usefulness of the bypass procedure, as judges granted all but a handful of requests to authorize abortions without parental notice. [25]
Doe v. Gomez
In 1995, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in Doe v. Gomez that the Minnesota Constitution conferred a right to an abortion and public funding for an abortion. [26] A 2022 ruling by a state district court in Doe v. Minnesota decided that certain regulations on abortion were also unconstitutional. [27]
Clinic history
Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state decreased by six, going from twenty in 1982 to fourteen in 1992. [28] In 2014, there were six abortion clinics in the state. [29] In 2014, 95% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 59% of women in the state aged 15–44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic. [30]
