Abortion front-and-center in ‘swing’ Minnesota as official invites Iowans to avoid new ‘extreme’ ban
Iowa's abortion ban threw neighboring Minnesota further into the swing-state political discussion as Donald Trump believes he can win there, while state officials lauded their lax abortion laws.
As Republicans appear bullish on breaking Democrats’ 50-year cycle of keeping Minnesota out of presidential election play, a new law in neighboring Iowa brings a controversial political issue front-and-center there.
On Monday, Iowa’s new six-week abortion ban took effect, leading one of Minnesota’s top executive officials to issue an invitation to Iowans seeking access to the procedure.
That news comes as former President Trump, formerly within the margin of error against President Biden, is now further trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
During a tour of a nonprofit abortion clinic in Bloomington, Minnesota, Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan issued a call for women to travel north if abortion can’t be provided for them in Iowa.
"If you’re afraid, come to Minnesota. We’ve got you," Flanagan said.
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Earlier this year, Flanagan notably tweeted her NCAA March Madness bracket: choosing teams based on the level of abortion restrictions in their home states.
"By this measurement, it’s only fair that Minnesota didn’t make the tournament because they’d have been a favorite for the title," she wrote at the time.
With Democrats hammering Republicans over abortion and pregnancy-related issues, Harris currently enjoys a six-point lead over Trump in Minnesota.
While the Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment, a spokeswoman for Trump reiterated the GOP nominee’s 10th Amendment-centric position that it is up to the states to decide abortion policy either way.
"President Trump has long been consistent in supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion," said Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign. "[W]hile Kamala Harris and Democrats are radically out of touch in their support for abortion up until birth and even after birth, and forcing taxpayers to fund it."
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The latter reference was directed toward former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a pediatrician by trade who once publicly ruminated about deciding what should be done in the case of a mother already in labor and in the moments after the infant is delivered.
Leavitt said there are greater concerns than abortion on Minnesotans’ minds when it comes to considering Harris’ candidacy.
"Harris encouraged donations to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which bailed now-convicted murderers and rapists out of jail and put them back into communities across the country," she said.
"Kamala wants to make this election about anything but her extreme policy positions and miserable record, but Minnesotans know that she is weak, failed, and dangerously liberal."
Fox News Digital also reached out to Minnesota Democratic Gov. Timothy Walz for comment on Flanagan’s invitation and the abortion issue in such political context, but the request went unanswered.
In a post on X, however, Walz said Minnesota "takes care of our neighbors."
"As our neighbors in Iowa are stripped of their fundamental rights, my message is clear: Your reproductive freedom will remain protected in Minnesota," Walz wrote.
However, the White House responded to the news by slamming Iowa’s "extreme abortion ban."
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"[It bans] care before a lot of women even know they’re pregnant. Iowa will be the 22nd state with an abortion ban in effect," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
"These bans, imposed by Republican elected officials, put women’s health and lives in jeopardy."
Minnesota has not elected a Republican president since Richard Nixon, and only offered its delegates up to Dwight Eisenhower and Herbert Hoover within the last 100 years.
Trump has remained hopeful that Minnesota is in play this cycle. A Sunday rally in St. Cloud served as such an example.
At the event, the mogul called Harris "evil" and cited her past solicitation for donations to the aforementioned Minnesota Freedom Fund.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, has received criticism as of late — after podcast comments resurfaced in which he floated federal penalties for abortion-related travel.
"Let’s say Roe v. Wade is overruled. Ohio bans abortion… and then you know, every day, [Hungarian-American billionaire] George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to load up disproportionately Black women to get them to go have abortions in California," Vance said in the resurfaced comments.
"And of course, the left will celebrate this as a victory for diversity. That’s kind of creepy."
However, more recently, Vance has appeared to soften that view, saying in December, "We have to accept that people do not want blanket abortion bans."
"I say that as a person who wants to protect as many unborn babies as possible. We have to provide exceptions for life of the mother, for rape, and so forth," he told CNN at the time.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.