Republican lawmakers in Minnesota have introduced a bill that is similar to Texas' Heartbeat Act (SB 8), which prohibits most abortions in the state when a fetal heartbeat is detected at about six weeks into a pregnancy, a period during which women are typically unaware that they are with child. Texas' Heartbeat Act was introduced on March 11, 2021 and was swiftly signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on May 19, 2021. Minnesota hopes to do the same.
According to the Minnesota Reformer, Republican Rep. Tim Miller sponsored the Minnesota abortion ban measure that prohibits abortions once a "fetal heartbeat" can be detected. The bill's language is similar to that of Texas', which allows citizens to enact the measure and file a lawsuit against anyone who "aids or abets" such abortions. However, the Minnestota abortion bill will not allow civil actions to be brought by an individual who caused a pregnancy through rape, sexual assault or incest.
This is not the first time Rep. Miller introduced such legislation. In fact, since 2018, he had been introducing legislation that would make abortions performed after a fetal heartbeat is detected a gross misdemeanor. But this time, the proposed bill is largely influenced by the Texas Heartbeat Act, which remains in effect despite legal challenges being worked through the court system.
Rep. Miller believes that while the proposed legislation might not make it through the Democrat-controlled House or be signed by the governor, he said he wanted lawmakers to discuss abortion while Roe v. Wade hangs in balance at the Supreme Court.
The point of me presenting this bill is we need to have a conversation of what that fetus is when a heartbeat is present," Rep. Miller explained. "We don't have that conversation... I am on the side of defending life and so I'm going to engage in the conversation."
In Texas, pro-life organization Texas Right to Life estimated in January that the Heartbeat Bill has saved "between 10,000 to 13,000" babies from abortion, the CBN News reported. The organization added that since September, the law has been saving at least 100 preborn lives every day.
The Biden administration's Department of Justice in October filed a lawsuit in federal court asking a judge to declare the Texas Heartbeat Bill as invalid. In December, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Texas abortion providers may file a lawsuit in lower courts to block Texas' ban on most abortions, but the justices allowed the enforcement of the abortion ban while the case moves foreward.
In addition, the high court rejected the Biden administration's attempt to block the Texas Heartbeat Bill and dismissed the Department of Justice's challenge as "improvidently granted."
As per the Guttmacher Institute, there were 10,740 abortions performed in Minnesota in 2017. That same year, there were were 11 facilities providing abortion in the state, seven of which were clinics.
