A number of doctors and anti-abortion access groups have filed a lawsuit against Minnesota state officials and abortion providers for allowing Minnesotans to get surgical abortions during the coronavirus pandemic.
In the complaint filed on Tuesday, plaintiffs pointed to Gov. Tim Walz’s March 20 executive order to halt nonessential medical procedures during the coronavirus pandemic in order to preserve medical equipment. Reproductive services have not been subject to the executive order, allowing Minnesotans to still access abortion services.
Plaintiffs, including the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Pro-Life Action Ministries and others, are being represented by the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based anti-abortion law firm. The firm’s Special Counsel Erick Kaardal in a Wednesday news release said it’s “dangerously unsafe” and “critically and irresponsibly wasteful” to allow surgical abortions during the pandemic.
“These elective abortion procedures take personal protective equipment away from hospitals, clinics, emergency rooms, doctors, nurses, and others on the frontlines of trying to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus,” he continued.
The lawsuit also says providers at abortion clinics should be subject to social distancing guidelines from the governor’s office.
The plaintiffs are arguing that Walz, the state health department and Minnesota abortion clinics are violating the Equal Protection Clause by allowing for and providing abortions right now. They are seeking an injunction to stop clinics from providing surgical abortions, and to enjoin Walz and state Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm from enforcing coronavirus executive orders “unless and until those orders are amended or reinterpreted to prohibit surgical abortions.”
The lawsuit isn’t the first attempt to halt abortions during the coronavirus pandemic, in Minnesota or on the national level.
In March, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life made the same arguments in a news release, and a litany of anti-abortion group leaders, including Minnesota Family Council chief executive officer John Helmberger, penned a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.