MINNEAPOLIS — Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman Thursday issued a new policy aimed at helping women from other states who face arrest warrants for getting abortions here.
At a State Capitol news conference, Freeman told reporters he anticipates prosecutors in other states may issue arrest warrants for women who've come to Minnesota to get an abortion, or those who assist them. Abortion is still legal in this state due to the Minnesota Supreme Court ruling in the 1995 Doe v Gomez case.
"The procedure I've worked out with the sheriff is we'd be inquiring of the state that solicits the warrant, what the warrant is for," Freeman explained.
"If it is for allegedly obtaining an abortion illegally, or providing services we will file a fugitive warrant, we will insist on an immediate hearing, we will ask for no bail and anticipate the individual would be released."
He acknowledged that the law requires the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office to arrest those wanted by other states. His new policy would ensure a woman wanted on an abortion-related arrest warrant could see a local judge quickly and be released.
"Extradition is usually used with the out of state warrant to return violent criminals who've committed serious offenses. That will continue, because that's the law. But abortion cases will not be."
For now, it’s a hypothetical scenario. In the days since the US Supreme Court overturned the Roe v Wade precedent and left abortion up to individual states there hasn’t been a case of a woman being arrested here on an abortion-related warrant from another state.
"I’ve got a lot of great lawyers over there. We all put our heads together to put together something we felt was totally legal. A fugitive warrant is a way to quickly get something to court. We’re going to assist the person who is in jail on the out of state warrant to get counsel."
Freeman will leave office in January, but he said both of the candidates vying to succeed him, Martha Holton Dimick and Mary Moriarty, would continue the policy if elected.
It remains a county-by-county decision.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi has also signed a pledge, along with 92 other prosecutors across the nation, that he won't assist in the prosecution of women seeking abortions where they're still legal.
Hennepin and Ramsey Counties are the largest in the state. The vast majorities of the abortions in Minnesota are performed in those two counties, according to the Minnesota Dept. of Health’s annual report on induced abortions.
Senator Tina Smith, who once headed the regional Planned Parenthood, appeared at the same news conference. She said some women are coming from out of state seeking help with life-threatening pregnancy complications that may require an abortion.
"Since the Dobbs decision, we’ve seen women suffering from miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, fetal abnormalities and other pregnancy complications forced to leave their home states to access life-saving, and in some cases, abortion care," Sen. Smith told reporters.
Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health was the 2022 US Supreme Court decision that overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade decision that had previously prevented individual states from banning abortions.
"Some of those women could face criminal prosecution because they have the audacity to try to save their own life."
Freeman held the event at the State Capitol office of Attorney General Keith Ellison, who has pledged to go to bat legally for women who face extradition to their home states on abortion-related cases.
"The overturning of Roe has put us in a brand new space and it will create conflict and very difficult circumstances for a lot of women," Ellison remarked.
Governor Tim Walz in June issued an executive order aimed at shielding women who come to Minnesota seeking an abortion. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said that order will expire in January if Walz loses his bid for re-election.
"Our executive orders would no longer be in place. It is the next governor, the prerogative of whoever the governor would be at that time."\
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