Flanked by Mary Petz (L) and Rae Piepho, Andrea Rau (center) legislative director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned For Life, came to Grand Marais to speak about the various ways MCCL has been working to cut down on the numbers of abortions performed in Minnesota. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
“Less than one percent of all abortions that are performed are due to rape, incest or to save the life of the mother,” said Andrea Rau, legislative director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL).
“And,” she paused, “It’s a little known fact that’s been true for decades.”
Rau, who has worked for MCCL for the past 20 years, was at the Cook County Senior Center on Wednesday night, September 25, speaking to about a dozen people who attended her presentation.
“Who are we? What does MCCL do?” She asked rhetorically.
MCCL is one of the nation’s largest and most effective pro-life organizations, said Rau. “Our mission is to secure protection for innocent human life from conception until natural death through effective education, legislation and political action.”
With 200 chapters across the state, MCCL has strong grass-roots support and has been instrumental in getting legislation changed to protect the unborn.
The National Right to Life Committee, the nation’s largest and most effective pro-life group, was founded by MCCL, and that organization helps to establish affiliate chapters many states.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court Roe v Wade decision in 1973 there have been roughly 60 million abortions performed in the U.S. Rau took square aim at Planned Parenthood as the state’s and nation’s largest abortion provider.
Planned Parenthood has five clinics in Minnesota and performs most of the abortions in the state, she said, with more than 60 percent of all of Minnesota’s abortions performed at the St. Paul Planned Parenthood facility.
Abortions peaked in the mid-80s in Minnesota, said Rau, and then leveled off to 14,000 per year in the mid-90s. Over the last three years abortions have plateaued at about 10,000 per year in Minnesota.
“Planned Parenthood says they are for women’s healthcare, but over the last few years they have been providing fewer and fewer non-abortion services to women.
They make hundreds of millions of dollars from the abortion service they provide, and they use some of that money to defeat public policies that would limit abortion services.”
In 2017 Planned Parenthood clinics performed 332,757 abortions nationally, making it by far the largest provider of those services in the U.S.
Meanwhile, its contraceptive services fell 32 percent since 2009. And cancer screenings, which consist mostly of manual breast exams and Pap tests, have dropped 66 percent. Prenatal services plummeted 78 percent and total services are down 14 percent over that time.
Among its three pregnancy related service, said Rau, Planned Parenthood provides pregnant women with three options, abortion, adoption referral, and prenatal services. Of those, abortion counts for 97 percent. Planned Parenthood performs 37 times more abortions than provide prenatal care and for very one adoption referral, Planned Parenthood doctors perform 118 abortions.
Noted Rau, while state abortions have gone down 23 percent from 2008 to 2018; Planned Parenthood increased its abortions by 59 percent.
Even as fewer abortions are conducted, Planned Parenthood received $1.67 billion in revenue during fiscal year 2018, an increase of 59 percent since 2009.
In Minnesota, in the fiscal year ending 2018, Minnesota taxpayers were billed $562,728 to pay for 2,570 abortions performed in 2017. Since 2011, Planned Parenthood has increased its tax-funded abortions by 197 percent.
Recent state legislative initiatives supported by MCCL include: “Let Her See” the ultrasound, which would require that, if an ultrasound is performed before the abortion, the woman would be given a chance to see it.
Pain-capable Unborn Child Protection Act: This would prohibit abortion at the point the unborn child is capable of feeling pain (20 weeks).
Perinatal Hospice: This is a new one-time grant opportunity proposed to help health care organizations set up, expand, and/or provide training for perinatal hospice services for families whose unborn child is diagnosed with a life-limiting condition.
Women’s Right to Know Information on Provider Website: Also new, this proposal would require that information be offered to women under Minnesota’s existing Woman’s Right to Know informed consent law be more easily accessible by being on the abortion provider’s website.
Abortion Funding Ban: Would prohibit using taxpayer funds to pay for abortion for low-income women.
Abortion facility regulation: Would require that abortion facilities be licensed and inspected by the state.
Legislation opposed by MCCL: recent legislation introduced to authorize assisted suicide. The proposal has yet to pass any committee.
MCCL also opposes the Positive Alternatives Funding Cut. In 2019 a new effort was made to cut funding for the Positive Alternatives Program, which help to provide support and resources to pregnant and newly parenting women and their families. Full funding was restored in 2019, said Rau, but efforts to cut it again could resurce.
“Passing legislation does impact abortions,” Rau said, citing the rate for abortions for minors in Minnesota has dropped 91 percent.
“Since 2018, when Women’s Right to Know information was provided to women who were going to have abortions, 2,500 scheduled to take place didn’t happen,” she said.
For the first time MCCL doesn’t have a majority of legislators in the Minnesota House who will stand with their legislative causes, said Rau, adding, “And Governor Tim Walz is no friend of ours. He has a zero rating from us when it comes to voting on issues of abortion.”
But, said Rau, “Thankfully we have a pro-life Senate.”
One of the big pushes MCCL has been working on is to allow women who are to receive an abortion be allowed to see their ultra-sound, which is given right before the procedure. “We have been told by women who have asked to see the ultra-sound that they couldn’t see it.”
Following ghoulish statements made by Ralph Northam, a physician and the governor of Virginia, that if a baby survived an abortion procedure, doctors could make the baby comfortable until the mother could decide what to do with it, polls across the country indicated there had been a big shift in favor of most people calling themselves pro-life, Rau said, who added that Northam’s comments were “Hogwash!”
That national sentiment didn’t last too long, however, after Georgia and Alabama called for all abortions to be banned in their states — including in the case of rape or incest — and the tide swung back again, said Rau, with many people once again calling themselves pro-abortion.
Meanwhile, sad Rau, the state of New York has gone to the far extreme with one exception, any baby born alive following a botched abortion would be kept alive. On January 22, 2019, on the anniversary of the decision by the Supreme Court on Roe v Wade, New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the state’s Reproductive Health Act (RHA). One tenet of RHA removes abortion from the state’s penal code. The homicide statute defines a person as “a human being who has been born and is alive,” Rau said, adding the law also takes away all of unborn babies’ personhood rights.
Today, if a mother carrying her child is assaulted and her unborn child dies, or if the fetus is killed in a car accident or dies in some malevolent way, there is no way to prosecute someone. “There is no protection for the unborn in New York,” stated Rau.
Taking the lead from New York, “We have seen a lot of states getting aggressive on pro-choice rights. They are trying to do anything they can to make their state’s laws prochoice.”
As far as the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, Rau doesn’t think that will happen anytime too soon, if ever. “You think the court is waiting to get a strong majority before it will vote to overturn Roe v Wade. It’s a big decision that will affect the whole country, and I don’t think they want to pass it with a narrow vote,” Rau said.
Until then, Rau called on people to work compassionately.
“We believe in science, logic, compassion and love,” Rau said of MCCL.
Even though the numbers of abortions are going down, late-term abortions, those that end a pregnancy at 20 weeks or later, are rising. “Five years ago there were about a dozen abortions for women who were 22 weeks pregnant. In 2017, the number was in the upper 60s. We are seeing a consistent and steady rise in late-term abortions,” she said.
As far as Cook and Lake counties, abortions are rare.
Between 2014 and 2018 there were between 0 to 5 abortions in both Cook County and Lake County, far lower than most of the state, said Rau. Good news to be sure, but Rau said every unborn child is worth fighting for, and she didn’t have any disagreement from those that attended her presentation.
Leave a Reply