Months before that was chosen as the running mate of Vice President Kamala HarrisMinnesota Gov. Tim Waltz toured a Planned Parenthood clinic in his state with Harris — the first time a president or vice president has visited an abortion provider.
That trip was in March She put her efforts into protecting Minnesota’s reproductive rights in the spotlight.
Now, Harris and Walz represent the Democratic ticket vocally supporting access to abortion and fertility treatment during an election where these issues will be important to voters and will be the focus of many Democratic campaigns.
It was Minnesota the first state to enact a law protecting abortion rights After the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022. whdrink Walz signed In January 2023, it determines that local governments – cities, counties, settlements, etc. – cannot regulate a person’s choice to obtain an abortion or other reproductive services.
A few months later, Walz signed a second abortion-rights law — one that bans the jailing of abortion providers in Minnesota and protects people who travel there to avoid another state’s abortion ban. By law, Minnesota officials do not have to turn over a patient’s health records in response to a subpoena or court order from another state.
Between 2020 and 2023, the share of people traveling to Minnesota for abortions from other states tripled. Data from the Guttmacher Instituteis a research organization that supports access to abortion.
Abortion rights advocates pointed to those moves Tuesday as they expressed support for Walz.
“By selecting Governor Waltz as his running mate, Vice President Harris has advanced the most reproductive freedom ticket in history,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement. “Gov. Walz is a longtime champion of sexual and reproductive health and has been a fierce champion of abortion rights as governor.
Minnesota, which traditionally votes for Democratic presidential candidates, has the most progressive abortion policy in the country. After the Roe decision in 1974, abortion was legalized there. In 1995, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that abortion rights are protected by the state constitution.
After Roe was overturned, the state took additional measures to make abortions easier. District Court Judge in July 2022 removed a number of requirements that impede access, including a rule that only doctors can perform abortions and a mandatory 24-hour waiting period. Abortions are also covered by state Medicaid funds.
As governor, Walz cut funding for a grant program under the Minnesota Department of Health that supports so-called crisis pregnancy centers, which offer counseling and supplies to pregnant people, often trying to persuade them not to have abortions. Some of these centers are known provide inaccurate or false information.
National Right to Life, the largest U.S. anti-abortion group, said Tuesday that Walz’s move to fund crisis pregnancy centers in her state was a “huge blow” to families.
“If elected, the Harris-Waltz Administration will advance the most extreme policy agenda on abortion of any administration,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life.
In addition to supporting access to abortion, Walz advocated in vitro fertilization. Many abortion rights advocates worry that access to fertility treatment is in jeopardy after Dobbs because IVF often involves discarding embryos because of genetic abnormalities or because they are no longer needed. Some who believe in the concept of fetal identity have opposed this practice. For example, the National Right to Life states that frozen embryos should be given to other couples rather than destroyed.
Walz said Minneapolis Star Tribune In March, his wife gave birth to two children with the help of fertility treatments he received for seven years before becoming pregnant with their daughter.
In February, Walz criticized an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that said embryos created through IVF are considered children, meaning people could theoretically be sued for destroying them. Judgment prompted several IVF providers in Alabama to discontinue their services; they are reinstated after the state adopted legal protections for fertility doctors and clinics.
“This issue is very personal to our family and many others,” Walz said He wrote on Facebook on time. “Don’t let these kids get away with saying they support IVF when elected judges oppose it. Actions speak louder than words and actions are clear.”
There is also a waltz expressed his support a bill was introduced last year The Minnesota House of Representatives will require Minnesota health plans that offer maternity coverage to also cover pregnancy care. He also called for language to be added to Minnesota’s abortion rights bill, signed into law in January 2023, that would further provide access to IVF and other fertility treatments.
Walz’s office did not respond to a request for comment. A representative of the Harris campaign said restoring the protections provided by Roe is “the position of the ticket.”