ST. PAUL -- Taxpayer funded abortions fell more than 4 percent in Minnesota in 2008, according to a Minnesota Department of Human Services report issued April 1. The drop follows a several-year trend that coincides with the Positive Alternatives program that has provided practical help to pregnant women. Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) strongly supports the program.

Positive Alternatives was passed by the Legislature in 2005 to establish a grant program through the Minnesota Department of Health. Grants are given to life-affirming organizations offering essential services in the following areas: medical attention for the woman and the unborn child, nutritional services, housing assistance, adoption services, education and employment assistance, child care assistance, and parenting education and support services. At a modest cost of $2.4 million per year, the program served 12,000 women in its first two years.

"These numbers are more evidence of the effectiveness of Positive Alternatives, and MCCL is pleased with the results," said MCCL Executive Director Scott Fischbach. "Positive Alternatives is working. Fewer low-income pregnant women now believe that abortion is their only option. However, the enormous number of abortions remains a tragedy."

The 2008 figures show that Minnesota abortionists filed claims for 3,754 abortions and were reimbursed $1,505,862 by the state (an average of $401 per abortion). Taxpayer funded abortions peaked in 2004, when 4,104 abortions were performed on poor women in Minnesota. Public funding reached its height in 2006 with a total of $1,652,977.

Even as fewer abortions are performed on low-income women, Planned Parenthood manages to increase this part of its business. Its 6 percent increase in 2008 is part of a 140 percent increase since 2000. … The abortion provider even argues heartlessly that these abortions save money for the state.

"It is long past time for Planned Parenthood to end its exploitation of low-income and minority women," Fischbach said.

Minnesota taxpayers have been required to fund elective abortions since the Minnesota Supreme Court's 1995 Doe v. Gomez ruling. In that decision, the Court created a state "right" to abortion on demand and obligated all taxpayers to fund abortions. Taxpayers paid for 29 percent of all abortions performed in Minnesota in 2008.

Since the Doe v. Gomez ruling, taxpayers have paid $15,632,551 for a total of 50,869 abortion procedure claims. Prior to the court decision, taxpayers were charged about $7,000 per year for about 23 abortions.

"Polls continue to show that most Minnesotans and most Americans are opposed to taxpayer funded abortions, yet they continue to be forced to pay for them," Fischbach said.

MCCL is working to pass a ban on taxpayer funded abortion, H.F. 1059 / S.F. 906, authored by Rep. Mary Ellen Otremba, DFL-Long Prairie, and Sen. Claire Robling, R-Jordan.

Please be sure to read the latest at www.nationalrighttolifenews.org.  Send your thoughts and comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

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