A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to nullify Minnesota’s laws protecting access to abortion, saying the suit lacked standing.
Court documents show the suit was dismissed late last month. It was originally filed in November of last year by the Women’s Life Care Center, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates and several women who have had abortions.
The suit argued that the state’s abortion laws terminate parental rights without due process. Women are not being informed about their rights when it comes to the procedure, the lawsuit alleged, resulting in thousands of “involuntary” abortions a year.
According to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, the court said the plaintiffs did not identify which specific laws they were challenging, despite the court repeatedly asking. The court ultimately dismissed the suit because “the crisis pregnancy centers and their owners have suffered no concrete injury as a result of Minnesota’s choice not to impose the stringent abortion regulations the centers prefer.”
Attorney General Keith Ellison was among the defendants named in the suit, along with Gov. Tim Walz, local Planned Parenthood chapters and others.
Abortion access is protected by a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court decision and a state law guaranteeing a “fundamental right” to the procedure.
“This latest attack on abortion access in Minnesota is a reminder that anti-choice interest groups are constantly seeking new ways to ban abortion or make reproductive healthcare services harder to obtain,” Ellison said after the suit’s dismissal. “I am pleased to have defeated this latest attack on abortion in Minnesota, and I will do everything in my power to defend Minnesotans’ right to reproductive healthcare.”
0 Comments