Perhaps Bluestem is overly optimistic to fancy that retiring Minnesota state representative Tim Miller has met his Waterloo with the rejection of his anti-reproductive freedom ordinance by his hometown's city council.
We mostly recently posted about this in Prinsburg rejects PLAM ordinance update: tasty tidbits from the latest Star Tribune coverage and West Central Tribune: City Council in Prinsburg, MN rejects proposed abortion ordinance.
But at least he's getting the attention he deserves from the editorial board at the Star Tribune.
Some of the wisdom in A failed try to stoke abortion controversy:
. . . unlike Texas, Prinsburg is in a state where no less an authority than the Minnesota Supreme Court has held, in the 1995 case Doe v. Gomez, that the state Constitution includes the right to terminate a pregnancy.
That did not dissuade Miller, who told a Star Tribune reporter, "This is what God is calling me to do." He had arranged for the deep pockets of the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit law firm specializing in culture-war issues that does not publicly disclose its funding sources, to defend Prinsburg if it had faced court challenges.
Before the Prinsburg City Council decision, Miller said he planned to spread this campaign to deprive women of their constitutional right to other rural communities. The intention, he told the Star Tribune, is not to penalize the woman who has an abortion but to stop "the animals who tell her that's OK and profit from it."
This, of course, presumes that women are easily led astray and couldn't possibly have determined the risks for themselves and come to their own conclusion that the time is not right for them to undertake childbearing. It is an insulting premise, and most Minnesotans have made clear they reject such thinking.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told an editorial writer last week that the Prinsburg city attorney had contacted his office, "and we have every reason to believe the city attorney will review carefully and follow the laws of the state of Minnesota."
Writing to Prinsburg Mayor Roger Ahrenholz, who has already expressed support for Miller's proposal, Ellison advised that "Any municipal ordinance which limits the fundamental rights of pregnant Minnesotans to receive an abortion is unconstitutional" and that the state has extensive laws regulating the practices of medicine, nursing and pharmacology. "No city in Minnesota has the power to restrict the right to abortion or enact conflicting regulations on health care providers," Ellison wrote.
In a statement posted to the city's website on Friday, city leaders said, "In reaching its decision, the council took into account the position of the Minnesota Attorney General and its City Attorney stating that provisions described in the ordinance are unconstitutional and not within the legal authority of the city to enact. The council plans no further discussion or comment regarding the proposed ordinance."
Ellison said such efforts, even if they are essentially publicity stunts, prove that abortion continues to be an issue deserving of complete legal protection. Reproductive rights, he said, "must be fully defended, because there are clearly activists here who are going to advance their cause any way they can."
One of the best ways to defend those specific rights would be to enshrine them in statute.
The state Legislature now has a reproductive-rights majority. It should use that majority to provide statutory protection under Minnesota law without delay.
Read the entire editorial at the Star Tribune (we have a subscription).
Bluestem will keep an eye out for Mr. Miller's future publicity stunts. Material like this is why we subscribe to so many newspapers across the state--and check in on rural radio networks' webpages. Willmar Radio first reported about Miller's ordinance.
Related posts
- Prinsburg rejects PLAM ordinance update: tasty tidbits from the latest Star Tribune coverage
- West Central Tribune: City Council in Prinsburg, MN rejects proposed abortion ordinance
- Forum News Service: Prinsburg's Texas pro-life hold 'em ordinance gets more ink
- StribGuy: Small Minnesota town may become focus of abortion fight 'cause of Tim Miller
- 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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