Plans for 2023 legislative session

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – After the Minnesota House passed a fast-tracked bill to codify abortion rights, the Reproductive Freedom Caucus met to discuss future plans for the 2023 legislative session.

The one-page bill outlined the beliefs of the caucus: every person pregnant has the right to continue a pregnancy to birth, obtain an abortion, and make autonomous decisions around pregnancy.

There is no language in the bill which puts any restriction on the stage of pregnancy when an abortion can be performed.

“The reproductive freedom caucus continues our important work to ensure all three bills in the care package pass quickly to ensure Minnesotans and our neighbors are protected,” Senator Lindsey Port, a member of the DFL party representing Burnsville said. “The work ahead of us can be divided into three themes. Healthy parents and healthy children, bodily autonomy and gender freedom, and protecting and expanding access to abortion care.”

Days before the 50th milestone of the Supreme Court’s Roe V. Wade decision, the caucus, made up of dozens of DFL lawmakers said it is committed to not only ensuring but expanding the right to abortion in Minnesota.

Members of the caucus had much to say after some called their plans for the year extreme.

“We have been hearing from our opponents that our agenda is extreme. Let me tell you what is extreme,” Representative Kaohly Vang Her of St. Paul said. “We deny women and BIPOC people equal pay for equal work. We refuse to implement systems where everyone has the right to affordable healthcare. We reduce safety net programs that would help struggling families. We won’t invest in high quality and affordable childcare. Refuse to acknowledge and afford equal rights to our trans community. And we ignore the housing crisis and the important role this plays in raising a family.”

While abortion is the first issue this legislative session is focusing on, it is by far the last.