Also included in the budget deal was a health care bill to insure 12,000 more Minnesotans, more money for public schools and nursing homes, a deal on the Central Corridor light-rail line between Minneapolis and St. Paul, and money for the state’s first new major state park in 40 years.

With all the media coverage surrounding budget deals this session, Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council, shared his thoughts on important pro-family legislation after the session closed.

MCC: Now that the legislature has adjourned, how do you feel it went?

Prichard: Similar to last year. There were aggressive efforts to legalize smoked marijuana for medical purposes, domestic partnerships, mandate condom education in public schools and legalize surrogacy arrangements, stem cell research—the list goes on and on.  But fortunately all these efforts were turned back.

MCC: What major bills were defeated during the session?

Prichard: Efforts to authorize Minnesota cities, towns, counties and schools to establish homosexual marriage benefits for their employees and authorize the use of tax dollars to fund research on destroyed human embryos were both vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. The legislature didn’t attempt to override his vetoes. In the case of medical marijuana and mandating condom education in all Minnesota middle and high schools, threatened vetoes led to their defeat.

MCC: Were there any surprises this session? 

Prichard: One issue that wasn’t on our radar last year was an effort to legalize gestational surrogacy arrangements. That came up and passed the legislature without much scrutiny.

MCC: What are gestational surrogacy arrangements? 

Prichard: They are an agreement between a birth mother and an individual or individuals who pay the mother to carry a baby to term and then turn over the baby to the paying persons immediately after the baby’s birth.

The bill would have made these agreements legally enforceable, authorized compensation—which makes it baby selling—encouraged the exploitation of low-income women induced to become surrogates by the compensation offered, and redefined family relationships by granting homosexual partners of women artificially inseminated automatic parental rights. It was a radical bill. Again, gratefully, Pawlenty saw fit to veto the bill.

MCC: Why didn’t the medical marijuana bill pass in the House after it passed in the Senate in 2007 with a strong majority?

Prichard: There was strong opposition by law enforcement officials who saw it making enforcement of existing drug laws more difficult. And second, supporters knew they couldn’t get it passed Pawlenty who was opposed to it. I think there were also political considerations. Many out-state DFL representatives didn’t support it and didn’t want to have to vote on it.

MCC: So it sounds like Pawlenty was key to the defeat of these initiatives?

Prichard: Absolutely. Pawlenty was absolutely critical. Without his support many, if not all of these initiatives would now be in law. I’m grateful for his standing strong on these issues.

MCC: It looks like many of these issues bills passed by significant numbers. In several instances over 60 percent of legislators in both Houses approved them. Why is that?

Prichard: Because we have an extremely liberal legislature. It’s the most socially radical legislature I’ve seen in my 20 years around the state legislature. And of course, this is the result of national political happenings, disgruntlement with Republicans nationally, and a very aggressive grassroots effort by liberal groups to get liberal legislators elected the past two election cycles.

MCC: What are the prospects for the November 2008 elections, in Minnesota and beyond? 

Prichard: Not good for pro-family concerns, particularly in Congress. It’s hard to say which way the presidential election will go. If Obama is the candidate, liberals will have a very radical candidate on the national ballot and they may have overreached.

In the state, I don’t expect to see the same pro-family losses in the state legislature. I think things may have bottomed out in Minnesota after the 2006 elections when things were probably as bad as they’ll get for pro-family concerns.

In the U.S. Senate race, assuming Al Franken is the challenger to incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, we again may have an instance of someone too liberal for many voters to accept.


2008 pro-life decisions
Positive Alternatives grants: The Positive Alternatives program provides grants to life-affirming organizations, including pregnancy care centers, which provide support and resources to pregnant women. During the 2008 legislative session, the Senate originally cut all funding, and the House proposed cutting funding by approximately 80 percent. After motivating grassroots citizens to contact their elected officials and working with pro-life legislators, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life reported that funding for the program has been restored.

Saline Abortion Ban introduced: On March 10, MCCL’s most recent legislative initiative, the Saline Abortion Ban, was introduced in both the Minnesota House and Senate. The bill never received a hearing in either body. In a saline abortion procedure, the abortionist injects a long needle through the wall of the uterus and removes the amniotic fluid, which is replaced with a hypertonic saline (salt) solution. The baby swallows the toxic salt and is slowly and painfully poisoned. Pregnant women can suffer many complications from this procedure, including severe dehydration, seizures, organ damage, coma and even death. The risks of saline abortion are so severe that the procedure has been banned for decades in Japan, Sweden and other countries.

Taxpayer funding of sex-selection abortion: MCCL and pro-life legislators worked together to successfully pass an amendment to the House’s omnibus supplemental budget bill (H.F. 1812) to ban taxpayer funding of sex-selection abortions, which have become increasingly common due to the increased availability of gender tests. A House-Senate conference committee later stripped the ban on taxpayer funding of sex-selection abortions from the omnibus bill.

Cloning and stem cell research: The Kahn Cloning Bill, S.F. 100, was passed May 7 by the House in a 71-62 vote after having been approved by the Senate during the 2007 session. The bill endorses and allows taxpayer funding of human cloning and embryo-killing experiments at the University of Minnesota. The Senate concurred with the House version of the cloning bill, which was sent to pro-life Gov. Tim Pawlenty on May 19. At press time he had not acted on the bill but was expected to veto it. Pawlenty earlier sent a letter to all legislators expressing his strong opposition to human cloning and embryo-destructive research.