Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) says it will spend millions on a digital and TV ad campaign opposing efforts to put Minnesota’s abortion law into the state constitution. 

The first TV ad began airing this week.

“The legislature passed a law that allows an unborn baby to be aborted at any time up to the time of birth,” the ad says, showing two young women discussing abortion while drinking coffee and watching TV. “Even healthy babies with healthy moms.”

MCCL co-executive director Cathy Blaeser says the campaign will continue into May, with a second ad to be released next week. 

“Minnesota last year enacted the PRO Act, which allows any unborn child to be aborted for any reason at any time in pregnancy,” Blaeser said of the Protect Reproductive Options Act.

It is true that Democrats who control the House and Senate passed the PRO Act in 2023 and removed all restrictions on when a woman can get an abortion.

DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman said today she’s not sure how effective the MCCL campaign will be.

“I would just say that Minnesotans are really clear about this issue,” Hortman said. “They understand that abortion is health care and the decision on whether to have an abortion procedure is between a woman and her doctor.”

The primary aim of the MCCL campaign is to keep the state abortion law out of the constitution. Hortman says the issue is unlikely to be on the 2024 ballot but could be in 2026.

MCCL and Republican lawmakers say they don’t think many Minnesotans who generally support abortion rights realize the state’s new law removed all restrictions.

“That is not a lie, that is not fiction,” says Rep. Peggy Scott(R — Andover). “And I just really feel that’s not where women of this state are, it’s not where the people of this state are. That is not Minnesotan.”