Senate Democrats and Governor Choose Abortion
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On Saturday, Jan. 28, after over 12 hours of debate on the topic, Senate Democrats passed extreme abortion legislation that protects “abortion” and “reproductive rights” with no safeguards or limitations. Later in the same week, Governor Walz signed the bill into law. The seemingly short, less-than-a-page bill goes far beyond the scope of both Doe v. Gomez and Roe v. Wade. It allows for abortions at any point during a pregnancy. And alarmingly, there are zero protections in place for women or babies. Our aim as legislators should be to find commonsense, consensus agreement. The PRO Act, however, fails to achieve this goal, and is the wrong step for Minnesota. Myself and many of my pro-life colleagues pushed for numerous amendments - all of which were dismissed by the Democratic party:
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- Ban on third-trimester abortions
- Prohibition of violent Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) abortions
- Language that would have excluded sterilization from the umbrella of “reproductive rights”
- Requirement of parental notification
- Language that would have prevented the sterilization of minors
- Prohibition of abortions due to down syndrome
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During the final passage of the bill, a party line 34-33 vote was taken in order for the Democrats to send this extreme bill to the Governor.
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Click on the photo below to watch a video of my final comments on the PRO Act before it was passed.
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On Thursday, Feb. 2, Senate Democrats once again forced through extreme hyper-partisan language on a party line vote. SF-4, known as the “Blackout Bill,” is the Democrats’ extreme energy bill that mandates all electric production to be 100% carbon-free by 2040. The legislation closes our state to coal and natural gas and mandates the shift to renewable energy sources of solar, wind, hydroelectric, hydrogen, and biomass. Most notably, the bill fails to consider nuclear energy. The United States Department of Energy categorizes nuclear energy as “clean and sustainable,” because it protects air quality, the land footprint is small, and it produces minimal waste.
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The 100% carbon-free mandate will come with tremendous expenses, and the Center of the American Experiment estimates that it will cost each customer an average of $3,888 in additional electricity costs every year, through 2050. Energy prices are already skyrocketing, and this bill will only hurt the pocketbooks of Minnesotans.
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Further, not only is the zero-carbon electricity mandate costly to Minnesota, but it is going to lessen the reliability of our energy future. There are already great stresses on the Midwest power grid. And as a result, our state will face devastating blackouts like those we have seen in California, Texas and North Carolina.
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The Blackout Bill, simply, fails to make energy affordable and reliable. As technology progresses, our energy sector continues to become cleaner and reduces carbon emissions. This top-down government mandate will have no tangible environmental benefits but will cost Minnesota consumers and threaten grid reliability.
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Connecting with Constituents
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As always, I encourage constituents to contact and visit my office. Here are some photos of constituents who recently came to visit the Capitol. It is always a pleasure to welcome constituents from the Senate District 9.
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Senator Jordan Rasmusson
District 9
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