Abortion rights bill fast-tracked in Minnesota to become law

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A bill to strengthen abortion rights in Minnesota is on the fast track to becoming law as it passed its first test Thursday.

A House health panel approved the legislation, which codifies protections into state statutes, 11-8 on just the third day of the 2023 session and sent it to its next committee stop on an expedited path to a House floor vote. Backers hope to put the bill on Democratic Gov. Tim Walz's desk for his signature by the end of the month.

As lawmakers across the country reconvene, they're getting their first chances to take up key abortion proposals in the six months since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — and left the question of whether abortion is legal to the states to determine. Nationwide, scores of bills are in the pipeline that would either expand or restrict access.

On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration finalized a rule change that broadens availability of abortion pills at pharmacies, but legal experts foresee years of court battles over access to the pills as abortion-rights proponents bring test cases to challenge state restrictions.

Democrats in Minnesota and across the country ran on strong platforms of strengthening abortion rights in the wake of the Dobbs decision. They credit the backlash for their takeover of the Minnesota Senate, which gave the party full control of the Legislature for the first time in eight years and what their leaders say is the body's first ever majority that supports abortion rights.

Under a 1995 state Supreme Court decision, abortion rights are already protected in Minnesota. A district judge last summer declared that several restrictions that were enacted since that ruling violated the state constitution — including a waiting period and a parental notification...