ST. PAUL — The right to make a person's own pregnancy decisions was added to the Minnesota Equal Rights Act during a Monday Rules and Legislative Administration committee hearing.
The ERA would bar discrimination based on race, color, national origin, ancestry, disability, sex, gender identity and gender expression or sexual orientation — and now pregnancy decisions.
The bill would amend Minnesota's constitution and require voter approval in the 2024 general election.
An earlier version of the bill passed by the Senate listed creed, religion and age as protected statuses. Those were removed during Monday's hearing.
The changes, added by bill author Rep. Kaohly Vang Her, DFL-St. Paul, faced pushback from Republicans and others offering testimony who called the move a way to slip abortion rights into Minnesota's constitution. They questioned why religion and creed were taken out.
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Her pointed out that religion is already protected by the Minnesota Constitution and that Minnesota courts have ruled that creed references religious beliefs .
House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth unsuccessfully tried to move the bill to other committees before the committee sent it to the House floor on a party-line vote.
"I have grave concerns about the lack of transparency to the public," Demuth said.
Her said she rejected the notion that she had not been transparent.
"Legislators are not deciding this. This is why it's going to voters to decide on this," she said. "This is not about what I believe. This is about putting the most comprehensive language out there and Minnesotans can decide.
The Minnesota Supreme Court has already ruled, in 1995, that the Minnesota Constitution guarantees the right to an abortion and a DFL-led Legislature codified the right into law during the 2023 session.
If the bill passes in the House in its current version, it would need to be sent to a conference committee where legislators would work to reconcile differences in the House and Senate bills before sending the final bill to both chambers for another vote.
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