Minnesota anti-abortion bill would defund Planned Parenthood

Plus, a North Dakota House committee debates resolution calling for the end of same-sex marriage.

Minnesota House Republicans, led by Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar (R-Hermantown), are pushing a bill that would funnel money away from reproductive health providers like Planned Parenthood and into so-called “crisis pregnancy centers.”

Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPC), which tend to be operated by anti-abortion organizations, are notorious for pressuring women to avoid abortions in favor of adoption, and they often falsely prevent themselves as unbiased medical providers. Indeed, according to the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics, “CPCs engage in counseling that is misleading or false. Despite claims to the contrary, these centers do not meet the standard of patient-centered, quality medical care.”

And unlike Planned Parenthood, CPCs do not provide other key reproductive health services like STD tests or basic birth control options like condoms.

The centers are so deceptive that in 2022, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison issued a consumer alert that “warns Minnesotans seeking reproductive health services about the limited services and potentially deceptive nature of certain claims made by some so-called ‘crisis pregnancy centers.’”

Despite such circumstances, the Zeleznikar bill proposes transferring some $8 million in grants dedicated to groups like Planned Parenthood to CPCs over the next two years. Zeleznikar’s bill comes after the GOP and Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party came to a power-sharing agreement earlier this month after weeks of Democratic boycott.

The bill is a part of a larger battle over reproductive health that is brewing under the second Trump term: Today, new Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced he would be launching a probe into the safety of the abortion pill mifepristone. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers mifepristone to be a viable and secure medication.

“President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone. He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it,” Kennedy said. “Whatever he does [take a position], I will implement those policies.”

On Monday, the North Dakota House Judiciary Committee began debating House Concurrent Resolution 3013, a Republican-written resolution urging the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states in 2015. 

“Obergefell v. Hodges requires states to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple and recognize same-sex marriage in complete contravention of a state’s own constitution and the will of the state’s voters, thus undermining the civil liberties of those states’ residents and voters,” the bill’s text reads. 

Twelve Republicans introduced the bill late last month, including state Rep. Bill Tveit (R-Hazen).

“This is a crucial step in taking back our country, our culture and our communities,” Tveit said at the committee hearing on Monday while introducing the bill.

During his speech, Tveit argued that the 2015 case should have had a 4-3 decision opposing legal same-sex marriage nationwide, with Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg being forced to recuse because they’ve supported LGBTQ+ rights and officiated same-sex weddings.

Should HCR 3013 pass through the North Dakota legislative branch, it would request that the secretary of state send the resolution directly to the Supreme Court. While the bill appears to be mostly a symbolic reputation of the recent advances in LGBTQ+ rights, it speaks to the broader, reactionary political attacks on gay, lesbian and transgender people taking place across the globe.

This hasn’t stopped both local and national anti-LGBTQ+ groups from chiming in on the resolution. 

“Some may argue that this is a settled matter, that we have more pressing concerns. But if we allow the foundation of marriage and family to erode, then every other policy — economic, legal and cultural — rests on shifting sand,” Arthur Schaper, a field director for the hate group Mass Resistance, said at the bill’s hearing. 

“Strong families are the backbone of a strong nation. We cannot put America First while putting American children second.”