Politics & Government
Minnesota's Republican Congress Members Celebrate Roe V. Wade Reversal
Republican Reps. Pete Stauber and Michelle Fischbach applauded the Supreme Court's overturning of federal abortion rights Friday.
![Anti-abortion protesters celebrate Friday outside the Supreme Court after justices ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place almost 50 years — a decision by its conservative majority to overturn landmark abortion cases.](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/24075954/20220624/054947/styles/patch_image/public/supremecourtroevwade3-ap___24174818727.jpg)
MINNESOTA — As Minnesota’s Democratic representatives in Congress issued dire warnings about the Supreme Court’s ruling Friday that overturned abortion rights protected by Roe v. Wade, two of the state’s Republican Congress members celebrated the reversal.
GOP Rep. Pete Stauber called the ruling “a win for the sanctity of life” and said it “returns decision-making power back to elected officials in states as intended.”
“Today’s historic ruling by the Supreme Court will save countless innocent lives,” Stauber said in a statement posted to Twitter.
Find out what's happening in St. Michaelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Republican Rep. Michelle Fischbach said Friday on Facebook that the ruling “was a step to protect the most precious and basic right: the right to life.”
"Roe v. Wade was unconstitutional. The pro-life community has always known this," Fischbach said Friday at a news conference in Washington, D.C.
Find out what's happening in St. Michaelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Rep. Tom Emmer, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, applauded the court's ruling "to finally return this power to the American people."
"Every life if precious, and the decision to defend it should remain with the states," Emmer said in a statement.
RELATED: Roe V. Wade Overturned: What It Means In Minnesota
Minnesota’s four Democratic U.S. Congress members put out statements Friday slamming the ruling and calling it a government overreach into citizens’ private healthcare decisions.
Rep. Angie Craig called the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade a "calamitous decision that upends decades of precedent and rolls back fundamental rights for millions of Americans."
Rep. Betty McCollum said the ruling was “a direct attack on women” and “overturns a fundamental right to make our own health care choices.”
"Abortion remains legal in Minnesota, but we are now in a nationwide battle — and I will never stop fighting for our rights,” McCollum tweeted.
Rep. Ilhan Omar said the ruling is “devastating for millions of women and pregnant people” in the U.S. and called for the Democratic-majority Senate to abolish the filibuster and pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would prohibit governmental restrictions on access to abortion services.
“I am outraged this right-wing court is turning the clock back on generations of progress and prohibiting individuals to have autonomy over their bodies,” Omar said. “Let’s be clear: This decision is a blow to everyone who believes in the 14th amendment and to anyone who believes there are limits to how much the government can control the decisions we make in our private lives.”
RELATED:
Rep. Dean Phillips said the ruling was “unprecedented” and “unacceptable” and called it “a blow to all who believe in limited government encroachment in our personal lives.”
"Withdrawing a woman's right — one established a half century ago — to make decisions about her body and her future is abominable."
“Within 24 terrible hours, six people on the Supreme Court afforded rights to men with guns and stripped rights from women with a uterus,” Phillips tweeted.
Minnesota's First Congressional District seat remains open after the death of Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn in February.
The court's ruling to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and a subsequent case on fetal liability — Planned Parenthood v. Casey — was expected. Justice Samuel Alito Jr.'s majority opinion draft was leaked in May to Politico, signaling a seismic shift in abortion rights was coming.
Read the full Supreme Court decision here.
RELATED: Protesters Gather After Supreme Court Strikes Down Roe V. Wade
At least 26 states are expected to make it almost impossible for a woman to get a procedure that was legal for her mother, grandmother or even great-grandmother, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights research and policy group.
With the decision, abortion will be illegal or a nearly impossible procedure to get in about half of U.S. states, including large swaths of the South, Midwest and Northern Plains.
The state of Minnesota has the most liberal abortion laws in the region. Under Minnesota law, abortions are allowed during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion is already illegal or will be illegal soon in 13 states with pre-existing abortion-banning "trigger" laws, which are set to take effect with the dismantling of Roe and Casey.
Another four states are poised to ban abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Nine have so-called fetal-heartbeat laws that make the procedure illegal before many women know they are pregnant.
Planned Parenthood Minnesota Advocate — the action fund for the organization's work in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota — said it will hold a vigil Friday evening in Minneapolis to "grieve and process this monumental reversal of our rights and what this will mean."
"Every person deserves the fundamental right to control their own body," Planned Parenthood Minnesota Advocate wrote on Facebook. "We must march, mobilize, organize, text, call, write, shout — do everything we possibly can to show support for safe, legal abortion."
Planned Parenthood's Minnesota clinics are reminding anyone who calls that "no matter what you're hearing, abortion is still legal in our region."
"Planned Parenthood's doors are open. We are providing abortion care and all other services," the organization's website says.
Planned Parenthood locations in Wisconsin were forced to temporarily suspend all abortion services due to Friday's Supreme Court ruling, according to Tanya Atkinson, president of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin.
"Today, our daughters have less rights than their mothers, less rights than their grandmothers. This is absolutely unconscionable," Atkinson said.
Planned Parenthood's Wisconsin clinics are still working to serve people seeking abortions, Atkinson said.
Wisconsin clinics "can help people navigate to a state where abortion remains safe and legal, where people's healthcare decisions are respected," Atkinson said.
Clinics can also provide aftercare to people who are returning home to Wisconsin after receiving an abortion, Atkinson said.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.