LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

Posted 1/25/23

The dam has broken Last week, House Democrats pushed through the most radical abortion bill in America, putting our state on par with just seven countries around the world including China and North …

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LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

Posted

The dam has broken

Last week, House Democrats pushed through the most radical abortion bill in America, putting our state on par with just seven countries around the world including China and North Korea.

The reckless bill allows for abortions at any point during a pregnancy until birth, with no requirement that the procedure is done in a licensed facility. You may or may not be aware that abortion facilities are not licensed nor regulated in the State of Minnesota.

Think about that for a minute. Minnesota requires the person that cuts your hair to be licensed. A mortician is licensed. Hospitals are obviously licensed. Yet an abortion facility is not.

Numerous attempts were made by House Republicans to amend the legislation to show compassion to mothers and the unborn. The proposed changes included requiring 2nd and 3rd trimester abortions to be performed in a hospital, banning partial birth abortions, and banning abortions in the 3rd trimester, with the exceptions of rape, incest, and saving the life of the mother. House Democrats voted all of them down.

The bill now heads to the Minnesota Senate.

We also heard the introduction of a bill, that will undoubtedly pass, that will mandate K-12 schools to place feminine hygiene products in all BOYS bathrooms. It’s another Democrat government mandate that makes no sense whatsoever.

Finally, coming next week in the Education Finance Committee, we’ll hear the introduction of a bill providing “free breakfast and lunch for all” school kids in Minnesota. It sounds ok on the surface, right? We all want kids to have a full stomach at school. The problems with this bill are:

•It’s another government mandate that takes away local control from our school districts.

•There are far more families in Minnesota that don’t need this program than there are families that do.

•It’s not really “free;” we’ll all end up paying for it on the backend through increased local levies and tax increases to actually pay for this “free” program.

It would seem to me that a more sensible approach would be to ensure that those who cannot afford lunch are getting a lunch at school, let the majority of families who can afford paying for their kids’ lunch to continue doing so, and take that roughly $200 million that the program will cost (each year) and provide tax relief to families so its easier for them to buy groceries or fill their gas tanks.

I really wish we had more uplifting news this week but unfortunately with Democrats having complete control of our state policy-making, the dam has broken on legislation that doesn’t make any fiscal sense, and takes significant control away from where it belongs -in our local communities.