Local reaction to Roe around safety, "abortion oasis"

Jun. 24—MANKATO — Increased safety concerns and Minnesota becoming an "oasis" for abortions are among the fallouts of the Roe v. Wade reversal by the U.S. Supreme Court Friday, local experts say.

"We already know that doctors who perform abortions receive death threats and are harassed," said Jill Locke, Gustavus Adolphus College professor of political science and gender, women and sexuality studies. "Patients trying to seek services are harassed. That will only get worse because of this."

Locke doesn't expect an abortion ban in Minnesota "in the foreseeable future," but said the state will see pressure on already lean services as people come from other states to seek abortions.

"Our situation will be better than it is in our border states," Locke said, "but I would not take anything for granted. The composition of our Legislature and governor's office will be extremely important in coming years."

Abortion is still legal in Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa, according to Planned Parenthood. South Dakota has a trigger law that now bans abortions. Planned Parenthood paused abortion appointments in South Dakota a few weeks ago and will not resume appointments.

North Dakota also has a trigger law that bans abortion in 30 days. Planned Parenthood does not operate a health center in North Dakota.

Although not much will change in Minnesota when it comes to abortions, the Roe reversal is still a historic moment, said Paul Stark, communications director with Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life based in Minneapolis.

"It's a historic decision," Stark said. "The Supreme Court is allowing the American people to have a say about abortion laws again, and that's a victory for unborn children and their mothers. Roe v. Wade has caused so much harm. More than 63 million lives have been lost, approaching 700,000 here in Minnesota, and many men and women have been wounded as well. So today we move away from Roe and all the harm it has caused.

"Nothing immediately in Minnesota will change, but the U.S. Supreme Court is no longer mandating abortion on demand nationwide and so that obstacle is now gone," he said. "And that's a huge victory."

Locke disagrees.

"We have our own state restrictions so anyone seeking an abortion in Minnesota will still be very much impacted by this decision," Locke said of the Roe reversal. "People will be galvanized by this. The anti-abortion people in Minnesota will be galvanized by this decision.

"This is a major blow," she said. "There are many women who are cheering this victory. The pro-life, anti-abortion movement has a lot of women at the helm. By and large those are white, upper class women who have been at the forefront of the political movement against Roe and have supported the GOP and President Trump."

"I would say that the overturning of Roe is a referendum on women's right to bodily autonomy," said Laura Harrison, associate professor in the Department of Gender and Women's Studies at Minnesota State University.

"It will disproportionately impact low-income women and women of color who have less access to transportation and the economic resources to travel to states that continue to have abortion access. Reducing access to abortion has negative health and economic consequences for women, and the children they are already raising."

Poor women are already taxed with the burdens of travel to secure an abortion in Minnesota. "For poor women who have to travel across state lines, now that will be a very real barrier," Locke said.

It's been predominantly white women who have been leading the anti-abortion movement. Black, Latina and Native women have been leading the abortion rights organizing throughout this country's history, she said.

"This decision completely erases the work that women of color have done to secure meaningful health care, child care and contraception and abortion care. It's no secret that the medical establishment has not respected women of color's bodily autonomy and reproductive rights," she said.

The Roe reversal is in stark contrast to public opinion, with the vast majority of Americans supporting abortion rights. Justice Samuel Alito acknowledged in his opinion that many Americans support abortion rights, Locke said.

"They are trying to position this as a moral high ground against the uninformed or unenlightened masses, and that's insulting," she said.

Locke said, "It is also relevant to their claim that this will go back to the states and if people want abortion rights in particular, they can pass those laws and protections, but that is insincere. The anti-Roe, anti-abortion activists have gutted abortion rights."

Republican state houses are also stacked with people committed to overturning Roe, so the Republican Party has "almost no defenders of abortion rights in elected positions," Locke said.

She served as a patient escort at Planned Parenthood in the Twin Cities years ago when she first relocated to Minnesota. She said she learned that people of all shapes, sizes, stages of life, marital status, and parental status, come in for abortions.

Most people who seek abortions have children and, "It's devastating to me that they are harassed," she said.

Locke worries that the abortion ban will potentially impact other rights to privacy, including marriage equality, same sex marriage and LGBT rights.

Justice Clarence Thomas in his concurrence named gay rights as ones that "should fall," Locke said, "and he also named Griswold, which is the right to contraception case. So people are wondering, what will this mean for other privacy cases? And I think it's pretty clear where the agenda is going. It's not only about abortion, it's a broader agenda."

More than 70 people were at a rally for choice at Reconciliation Park at Riverfront Drive and Main Street early Friday evening, responding to a call from Daniel Marshall and a woman identifying herself as Belle Bloom, both of Mankato.

Bloom said the news left her "completely disheartened" in the morning but she was soon looking to take action, something she attributed to her decision to seek a degree in gender and women's studies at Minnesota State University.

"Every since then, I've been really passionate about civil rights, human rights, activism, social justice," she said.

Marshall considers the judicial philosophy behind Roe as being the foundation of numerous human rights, including the right to gay marriage, to contraception and more. By overturning Roe, the court is also threatening those other rights, he said.