MINNEAPOLIS — On Sunday morning, WCCO’s Esme Murphy spoke with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison following his decision to not appeal a ruling earlier this month that threw out all restrictions on abortions in the state.
Watch the interview above and read the previous story below.
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Attorney General Keith Ellison said Thursday that he has no plans to appeal the decision that struck down most of the state’s abortion restrictions.
A Ramsey County judge earlier this month ruled many restrictions violate Minnesotans’ right to an abortion under the state constitution affirmed by Doe v. Gomez, a 1995 state Supreme Court case.
The laws blocked include a 24-hour waiting period; parental notification if a minor seeks an abortion; disclosure of certain medical information before the procedure; and a provision that only allowed doctors to perform abortions.
“In my estimation, we are unlikely to obtain a different result through an appeal,” Ellison said in a press release. “At most, an appeal would remand the case to the district court for a bench trial in front of the same judge, where the State would once again be unlikely to prevail for the reasons the court outlined in its July 11 ruling.”
Ellison said that appealing the case would not be a “proper or prudent use of limited state resources.”
“In my view, and in the view of my co-defendants, not appealing the district court’s decision in Doe v. Minnesota is in the public interest and is the right legal decision,” Ellison said. “It is also the right choice for Minnesota taxpayers and all Minnesotans who need the finality of knowing that they can make intimate decisions about their own bodies free of undue interference by the government.”
Following the ruling, Gov. Tim Walz said he wouldn’t ask Ellison to appeal the ruling. Ellison, Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm, the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice and the Minnesota Board of Nursing were named as defendants in the case, which was filed over three years ago.
Minnesota abortion providers had already been seeing a surge from as far away as Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama even before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade late last month. They say it’s too early to speculate as to how much Monday’s decision might accelerate that, but they agree it will greatly help them cope.
This decision is expected to supercharge the already heated debate over abortion in Minnesota and further elevate abortion and abortion rights as a campaign issue. Abortion opponents and the Republicans hoping to unseat Ellison in November’s election had demanded that he appeal the ruling, saying he was obligated to do so as the state’s top law enforcement officer.
The two candidates who are in a GOP primary in less than two weeks for the chance to face Ellison in November — Jim Schultz and Doug Wardlow — are both condemning Ellison’s decision.
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