News

ST. PAUL, Minnesota, May 27, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Minnesota governor Mark Dayton struck down three pro-life bills, which would have lowered the legal limit for late-term abortion, removed state taxpayers from funding abortion, and prevented human cloning.

“We are very disappointed that Gov. Dayton prevented these mainstream measures from becoming law in our state,” said Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) Executive Director Scott Fischbach. “These are reasonable provisions, not extreme, and have overwhelming support from Minnesotans and legislators.”

Dayton vetoed the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (S.F. 649 / H.F. 936), which would have banned late-term abortion on an unborn child past 20 weeks gestation on the basis that substantial medical evidence indicates a child can feel pain at that age. The bill had an exception only if the mother faced a serious risk of death or “substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function”.

The law also specified that even then an abortionist has to try to deliver a viable post-20 weeks unborn baby in a way that gives the child the best opportunity to survive outside the womb, unless it would actually “pose a greater risk” to the mother’s life or physical health than abortion.

A second-abortion related bill (S.F. 103 / H.F. 201) vetoed by Dayton was a ban on taxpayer funded abortion, which would have responded to the Minnesota Supreme Court’s 1995 Doe v. Gomez ruling that required the state to pay for elective abortions of poor and low-income women. MCCL says that $17 million in state funds have been used to pay for the abortion of 54,802 unborn babies, according to statistics from the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

The Minnesota legislature will have to mount a veto override in order to push the legislation into law. However, the two-thirds majority threshold in the Senate is 45 votes, and the House is 90 votes.

A veto-override seems unlikely. The Senate had voted 40-26 and the House voted 80-44 to approve the taxpayer funding of abortion ban. The late-term abortion ban also passed in the Senate 42-24, and 82-46 in the House. In order to override, more Democrats would have to cross the aisle to join a handful of pro-life Democrats in supporting the GOP-sponsored bills.

Dayton also vetoed legislation that would have banned all forms of human cloning in Minnesota. The bill (HF 998/SF 695), authored by Rep. Bob Dettmer (R-Forest Lake) and Sen. Michelle Fischbach (R-Paynesville) would have banned both reproductive and therapeutic human cloning, also known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), which is a procedure necessary for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research.

Fischbach said MCCL was “hopeful” that Dayton would approve the legislation, which was strongly opposed by the University of Minnesota.

“Human dignity demands that life be respected and protected, not treated as mere raw material in laboratories,” he said.

A Minnesota statute already on the books, however, does seem to prevent scientific researchers from destroying cloned human embryos (which would be necessary in order to extract their stem cells).

The 1973 Human Conceptus statute (MN Statute 145.422) prohibits “the use of a living human conceptus for any type of scientific, laboratory research or other experimentation.” MCCL states that while Dayton’s veto means human cloning is still legal, the destruction of cloned embryos is not under that statute. The group also pointed to testimony given before the legislature by Dr. John Wagner, director of UM’s Stem Cell Institute, who stated on March 17: “Once you insert a nucleus into that oocyte you get an embryo.”

MCCL points out that pro-life lawmakers did add a ban on taxpayer funding of human cloning to an omnibus education bill, which must be renewed every two years.

Fischbach added that pro-life Minnesotans would continue working to realize in law a ban on all forms of human cloning. He also urged the governor to reconsider his opposition to the measures restricting abortion.

“We want to see Gov. Dayton work together with all Minnesotans, including the large majority who are pro-life and expect to see these protective measures become law.