Opinion editor’s note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.
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Let’s be clear about what an “extreme” position on abortion looks like now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned.
It is not what is currently under consideration in Minnesota under the proposed Equal Rights Amendment: constitutionally protecting the right of a pregnant woman and her doctor to decide what is medically appropriate care.
Instead, extreme applies to rigid abortion restrictions, mainly enacted in southern states, that have left hospitals refusing to terminate a pregnancy until the woman is on the brink of death. Example: Jaci Stratton of Oklahoma, who developed a pregnancy complication that can cause hemorrhaging, infection and death, and was told by medical providers to wait in the parking lot “until she was actively crashing in front of them or on the verge of a heart attack.”
Thankfully, Minnesota women will not be told to wait until their life is in jeopardy before receiving care. In 2023, the state’s DFL legislative majority codified abortion access with the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act. But as Roe’s downfall revealed, even longstanding guardrails protecting abortion access can come down with breathtaking speed. A change in legislative control in the state, for example, could lead to a weakening of the PRO Act, or even its demise.
More durable protections, such as that provided by an addition to the state’s Constitution, are urgently in order. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) currently under consideration at the Minnesota Legislature would provide them. In addition, the ERA would guarantee equal rights to historically vulnerable Minnesotans, preventing discrimination by the state due to race, color, national origin, ancestry, disability, sex, gender identity or expression or sexual orientation.
The ERA, various iterations of which have emerged for years at the Capitol, has had impressive momentum recently. A version passed the Senate last year with some Republican support, with the House taking up the bill and modifying it this session.