What Tim Walz record on abortion in MN could mean for the nation in a possible Harris/Walz administration.

By Patrick LaVigne

In 1973 Time magazine featured the state of Minnesota on its cover with the headline “The Good Life in Minnesota.” This glowing cover story praised Minnesota as a “state that works,” based on its qualities of courtesy, fairness, and a strong charitable spirit. Fifty-one years later the North Star State is pointing in the exact opposite direction, with a single party ruling government that in less than two years has essentially removed recognition of life in the womb and erased support and recognition for women who choose to be mothers. This dramatic shift in the state’s attitude towards babies and mothers has been led by the state’s current Governor Tim Walz, a man who could become next in line to the Presidency of the United States.

Before becoming Governor, Tim Walz served for 12 years in the U.S. Congress as Representative for Minnesota’s 1^st Congressional District. During his tenure, in 2019 Congress introduced and voted on H.R. 4712, the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, a law that would have given babies born alive after a failed abortion the right to receive the same medical care as any other child born at that same gestational time. At first glance, and according to official record, Rep. Walz voted for this life-saving bill. However, according to a memo he sent to the Speaker of the House, he made a mistake and actually meant to vote no, requesting his vote be changed. He made sure his constituents knew his yes vote was an “honest mistake” with a post on social media, and explaining that he had previously voted against this bill.

In 2018 Rep. Walz decided to run for Governor of Minnesota. In his acceptance speech at his party’s convention, he made sure his stance on abortion was very clear. “And my record is so pro-choice Nancy Pelosi asked me if I should tone it down. I stand with Planned Parenthood,” Walz said. Six years later as Governor, Walz would hold a round table event with Planned Parenthood at the start of the 2024 legislative session to boast about their achievements together in his administration.

And what were those achievements?

In 2023, with his party controlling both chambers of the MN Legislature, Gov. Walz signed into law the PRO Act, which allows abortion past the point in which a growing baby can feel pain and allows girls to receive abortions without parental consent. That same year Walz also signed legislation repealing the long standing bi-partisan requirement that before undergoing an abortion the mother must wait 24-hours after receiving a description of her fetus, information on fetal pain, and a list of resources that offer alternatives to abortion. He also repealed long standing laws that protected women by requiring an abortion take place in a hospital and be performed by a physician, thereby lowering health standards.

Sadly, many women today choose to have an abortion because they feel that they are alone and there is no support for them and their new child, whether financial or emotional. In Minnesota there are roughly 100 community-based pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) across the state that provide hope and free services to expectant mothers in need like ultrasounds, parenting classes, counseling, and materials like diapers, formula, and clothing. In 2005, under a bipartisan vote, the MN legislature created The Positive Alternatives Grant Program, which for almost 20 years has allocated millions of dollars in grants to PRCs across the state, assisting thousands of expectant mothers and their families in need. Under Walz’s leadership, the state eliminated this life saving program.

That Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her running mate is no surprise. In March 2024, Harris became the first sitting Vice President to visit a Planned Parenthood, doing so at a facility in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Welcoming and standing beside her for the event was Governor Walz. Later that summer, after the neighboring state of Iowa instituted a new law protecting life when a baby has a heartbeat, Walz invited Iowa’s women to MN to get an abortion, because that’s how Minnesotan’s “take care of our neighbors.”

One month later as he accepted the Democratic nomination for Vice President, Walz reiterated that “neighborly” Minnesota quality by loudly proclaiming that when it came to abortion, Americans should follow the new Minnesota mantra to respect your neighbors by following his golden rule to “mind your own damn business.”

Courtesy, fairness, and a charitable spirit are the qualities that made Minnesota “work” so many years ago. These qualities seem a far cry from the Minnesota Tim Walz has built today, a Minnesota where the abortion rate has risen by 37% in one year, where support that empowers mothers has been eliminated, and where “Minnesota Nice” has been replaced with “mind your own damn business.” Yes, the Minnesota “good life” may be gone, and replaced by a new vision, a vision that may become the nation’s reality under a Vice President Tim Walz.