State representatives in Minnesota, one of the bluest states in the union, have just encouraged more abortion by voting against key bills that would have protected unborn babies and helped keep pro-life alternatives available for women.
To understand the full impact of the failed legislation, Blaze News spoke with Jessica Chastek, a member of the board of Options for Women East, a licensed pro-life medical clinic in St. Paul that offers an array of health care services for men, women, and babies from pregnancy until three years after birth.
Democrats vote against ‘Supporting Women’
In just the last week, the Minnesota House has voted down two major abortion-related bills. The first was the “Born Alive” bill, which would have “fully recognized as a human person” any infant who is “born alive,” including those who survive an abortion procedure.
The move to deny newborn infants personhood and all of its attending rights and protections comes just a few years after a district judge tossed six abortion restrictions, including 24-hour waiting periods and parental notification requirements, that helped protect unborn life in Minnesota.
“These abortion laws violate the right to privacy because they infringe upon the fundamental right under the Minnesota Constitution to access abortion care and do not withstand strict scrutiny,” Ramsey County District Judge Thomas Gilligan ruled in 2022.
‘The Democratic Party … will not support any institutional organization that does not counsel for abortion.’
The other bill that failed last week and that more directly affected pregnancy centers like Options for Women East was the Supporting Women Act. This bill would not have done anything new. Instead, it would merely have restored to pregnancy centers crucial state funding that was first authorized in 2005 but taken away in the wake of the Dobbs decision in 2022.
“We had a $150,000 grant thrown away overnight,” Chastek told Blaze News.
That sum represents roughly one-third of Options’ budget. With such a dramatic reduction in resources, Options has had to make cuts, especially in staffing.
“The paid positions have to go away. So you have fewer nurses, you have fewer sonographers, and so you can offer fewer programs, which means fewer babies and moms being supported,” Chastek explained.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the failure to restore the much-needed funding is that it represents a marked political lurch leftward on abortion in a state that already leans heavily left.
When the Positive Alternatives Grant Program to support pregnancy centers was first proposed two decades ago, Democrats joined Republicans to support it. In fact, two of those Democrats who voted in favor of Positive Alternatives — Reps. Melissa Hortman of Brooklyn Park and Tina Liebling of Rochester — remain in the state House today. Like the rest of their Democratic colleagues, both Hortman and Liebling voted against the Supporting Women Act.
Neither of them responded to a request for comment from Blaze News.
Polling indicates that the American people want some restrictions on abortion. Last year, Pew Research revealed that just 19% of adults think abortion should be legal in all cases, “no exceptions.” In Minnesota, that number is higher: 26%.
However, nearly the same percentage of Minnesotan adults, 24%, believe abortion should be illegal in most cases, demonstrating that the people in the state would likely favor some restrictions. They also likely support providing funding for abortion alternatives, like Options.
The Democratic party there — officially called the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party — does not seem to care. The votes against saving the lives of babies who survive abortion and to refuse pregnancy resource centers much-needed funding all came from the DFL.
“The Democratic Party is saying we will not support any institutional organization that does not counsel for abortion,” Chastek said. “That is the explicit outcome. That is their intention. They won’t fund us because we will not counsel for abortion.”
While Democrats used to call for abortion to be “safe, legal, and rare,” they now treat it as “a positive good,” she claimed.
Democrats “want abortion to be something that there’s no shame about,” she continued. They “want it to be seen as something that’s empowering.”
Trying to ‘trick … queer people’: Dems make wild accusations
What’s more, it seems the Democrats were aware that their votes may be unpopular, so they flailed about during debate to defend their opposition to restoring the funding. In some cases, they even apparently resorted to misleading and stoking fears about what such pregnancy resource centers do.
For instance, they repeatedly claimed that the funding would go toward “unlicensed” facilities that do not adhere to regulations regarding medical and personal privacy, even as many centers, including Options, have licensed medical professionals.
Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn (DFL) of Eden Prairie suggested that these pregnancy resource centers were secretly preying on “vulnerable” women. “There’s nothing in here … about making sure that the places that are opening themselves up to women in a very vulnerable state are getting protection and care without potentially being taken advantage of,” she railed.
“This is unbelievable.”
Democrats are ‘actively making abortion more attractive.’
Kotyza-Witthuhn also implied that the $4 million in proposed funding for pregnancy centers could be used for fraudulent purposes. Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar (R-Fredenberg Township), who sponsored the bill, shot back that in the 17 years the funding was granted to these pregnancy centers, not a single instance of fraud was ever alleged.
Rep. Leigh Finke (DFL-St. Paul), a man masquerading as a woman, even claimed that those who support pregnancy resource centers and maternity homes are trying to “trick … queer people” out of having an abortion.
Minnesota Democrats’ attacks on pregnancy resource centers are all part of a larger plan to make the state a destination for “abortion tourism” — and their apparent obsession with abortion starts at the top, Chastek said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — the goofy running mate for 2024 Democratic presidential candidate and radical abortion advocate Kamala Harris — has routinely sided with abortion activists and abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. Chastek described Walz’s political alignment with abortion causes “really gross and grisly.”
“Governor Walz … [is] going to every extreme to make Minnesota an abortion tourism state,” she reiterated, adding that he and other members of the DFL are “actively making abortion more attractive and more accessible than support to help women have babies.”
Blaze News reached out to Walz’s office for comment but did not receive a response.
Some pro-lifers hope that shining a national spotlight on the powerful pro-abortion movement in Minnesota will force some state lawmakers in purple districts to moderate. The House is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, and abortion could be a wedge issue that drives voters to the polls in 2026 and beyond.
Meanwhile, facilities like Options for Women East will continue to make the most of the private funding they do receive. “We need to open our checkbooks, and we need to support these clinics,” Chastek told Blaze News.
“We have to step up and do the work. We can’t rely on government.”
Chastek said that the pro-life cause is not just about saving unborn children. It is also about helping women have lives filled with purpose and meaning.
“When we let them kill their kids, we kill their hope. And we can’t do that,” she said.
“We have to be able to encourage these women and support them and not just walk away from them.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Abortion, Pregnancy centers, Pregnancy resource centers, Minnesota, Democrats, Abortion agenda, Tim walz, Leigh finke, Pro-life, Politics
