Taxpayers ask Minn. Supreme Court to reinstate abortion funding challenge

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys asked the Minnesota Supreme Court Tuesday to reinstate a lawsuit that challenges the unauthorized use of state taxpayer funds to pay for abortions on demand.

“Minnesota taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for medically unnecessary abortions, especially when state law has not authorized it,” said ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden. “We are asking the Minnesota Supreme Court to reinstate this lawsuit because the facts overwhelmingly demonstrate the misuse of taxpayer funds.”

“The Minnesota Supreme Court’s 1995 decision that expanded abortion funding nonetheless made clear that its decision ‘will not permit any woman eligible for medical assistance to obtain an abortion ‘on demand,’” added ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence. “But the government’s own statistics prove this is precisely what is happening.”

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys and allied attorneys filed the lawsuit Walker v. Jesson in 2012 on behalf of two African-American taxpayers who are challenging the unauthorized use of state funding for elective abortions. Last month, the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a trial judge’s dismissal of the case.

In 1995, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the state must provide funding for abortions that are medically necessary, but not for elective abortions. Since then, however, the Minnesota Department of Health Services, according to the state’s own statistics, has used taxpayer funds to provide a large number of elective abortions.

Additionally, taxpayer-funded abortions are disproportionately affecting the African-American community: 40 percent of Minnesota abortions are being committed against African-Americans even though they make up only 5 percent of the state’s population.

As the petition filed with the Minnesota Supreme Court explains, the lawsuit’s “allegation of unlawful disbursement of public funds to pay for elective, nontherapeutic abortions is based on abortion data collected by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH)…. By far, the two largest reasons for publicly funded abortions given to the MDH were ‘economic reasons’ and ‘does not want children at this time,’ which do not qualify as ‘therapeutic’ abortions.”

The MDH data is collected from the same abortionists who seek reimbursement for the abortions from DHS.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.

# # # | Ref. 36764