It's a story Bluestem posted about since August in Retiring state rep Miller to push unconstitutional local ordinances for new PLAM Action job and this month in Tuesday, Prinsburg City Council heard Tim Miller propose PLAM Action anti-abortion ordinance.
Not to forget MN News Network: Prinsburg in west-central MN is “launch site” for new anti-abortion strategy.
But I'm always impressed with John Reinen's reportage from Greater Minnesota at the Star Tribune and his taking up of this story is no different.
Check out In Small Minnesota town may become focus of abortion fight. Reinen reports:
Minnesota's newest abortion battleground might be a town of 500 people on the western prairie.
The Kandiyohi County city of Prinsburg is considering an ordinance that would allow residents to sue abortion providers. Although the town doesn't have an abortion clinic, the proposed law also would allow lawsuits against companies that provide abortion drugs by mail. . . .
And that ordinance is so indicative of that Minnesota rural-urban we all keep reading and hearing about. Reinen reports:
The proposed ordinance had its first public hearing at a City Council meeting last week. It's based on a Texas law passed last year that allows private citizens to sue anyone who "aids or abets" an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy — a time before many women know they're pregnant.
Jonathan Mitchell, the Texas lawyer who wrote that law, is working on the Prinsburg proposal with Pro-Life Action Ministries of St. Paul, Miller said. . . .
Miller said he's confident the ordinance can withstand legal challenges, but a law professor was skeptical.
"This is something that I am pretty darn sure is outside the power of this municipality to promulgate," said Laura Hermer, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Minnesota law and court decisions have affirmed the right to abortion in the state, she said, and it makes no sense to allow a city to pass a law overriding that.
"While the state of Minnesota may not be able to restrict a given right, to say your neighbor can — and the state can allow your neighbor to effectively take away that right — it makes a mockery of what we call rights," she said.
"It is such an affront to the rule of law."
Similar ordinances have been passed by cities in a handful of states, including Texas and Nebraska. The difference is, abortion was already illegal in those states, said Emily Bisek, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund.
"Typically, the ordinances are difficult to enforce and carry little weight," she said. "But they do scare abortion patients and confuse them, and further stigmatize abortion patients." . . .
Miller said his effort is backed by the Thomas More Society, a national nonprofit law firm focused on opposition to abortion and other conservative "culture war" causes. If Prinsburg — or any other city — were sued over an anti-abortion ordinance, the society would defend the case at no cost, he said.
"If this law professor doesn't think it will stand up in Minnesota court, they can file the lawsuit," he said.
Oh the down home originally thinking on the lone prairie.
Related posts
- MN News Network: Prinsburg in west-central MN is “launch site” for new anti-abortion strategy
- Tuesday, Prinsburg City Council heard Tim Miller propose PLAM Action anti-abortion ordinance
- Retiring state rep Miller to push unconstitutional local ordinances for new PLAM Action job.
- Tall grass prairie? State representative Tim Miller goes to Moorhead for grassroots organizing
- Retiring Rep. Tim Miller will work for Brian Gibson at Pro-Life Action Ministries sister group
- We won't have Tim Miller to kick around anymore--at least as a MN House member
- New House Republican Tim Miller shares unique understanding of gas tax in legislative update
- State rep Tim Miller: MN state public officials beholden to radical anti-livestock enviro groups
Image: The town sign for Prinsburg. Via Alchetron entry for Prinsburg.
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