Not long ago, Republican Attorney General Candidate Jim Schultz threatened to sue me for a Tweet pointing out just how anti-abortion he is. In my opinion, the specifics of Schultz’s threatened lawsuit are less important than why he made those threats: I believe Jim Schultz is trying to hide just how anti-abortion he is from Minnesota voters.
Schultz’s latest efforts at obfuscating his anti-abortion views came almost immediately after a memo from the Minnesota GOP leaked, which told candidates to soften their positions on abortion. According to Schultz’s campaign manager, “Jim has made clear that, although Jim is pro-life, he will not leverage what should be an apolitical office to advocate for abortion policy.” This is a lie. Here’s the simple truth—Jim Schultz would undoubtedly work to restrict abortion access in office. Here is the proof.
Schultz served on the board of directors of the Human Life Alliance, an anti-abortion organization that describes its mission as working to “make abortion not just illegal, but unthinkable.” That fact alone should answer any question about Schultz’s views on abortion. The group has also spread dangerous medical disinformation about abortion, claiming that late-term abortions are “never” needed to save a woman’s life and even going so far as to state that abortion “only adds to and accentuates the traumatic feelings associated with sexual assault.” Are we expected to believe that Schultz will sit down on the issue of abortion after helping to lead a group with such extreme views?
In a survey sent out by Minnesota Concerned Citizens for Life, Minnesota’s largest anti-abortion organization that has openly talked about working to “end abortion,” Schultz said that he supported the group’s “incremental approach” to “creating a pro-life Minnesota.” It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what that means—this strategy is clearly an attempt to chip away at abortion access until it can be banned outright. It is a strategy Republicans have been successfully employing to ban abortion across America. Make no mistake, that’s exactly what Schultz wants. While Schultz’s team admits he is privately anti-abortion, they try to claim he wouldn’t actually change abortion policy in Minnesota.
Jim Schultz promised to “aggressively stand up” to defend pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for medication abortions. And this isn’t just a hypothetical threat—right here in Minnesota a pharmacist recently faced trial for refusing to fill a prescription for emergency contraception.
As Attorney General, Schultz would be responsible for representing the Department of Human Rights and the Board of Pharmacy if they took action against a pharmacist who refused to do their job and fill prescriptions for medication abortions or contraceptives. Schultz has made it clear that he would not do his job here because of his anti-abortion extremism.
[image_caption]Ken Martin[/image_caption]
There are plenty of other reasons to be concerned about Schultz’s candidacy. He’s a hedge fund lawyer who has never actually tried a case, he opposes gun safety reforms like universal background checks to keep Minnesotans safe, and he promised to defund the corporate law enforcement functions of the Attorney General’s office that protect everyday Minnesotans from predatory big businesses. However, Jim Schultz has gone to great lengths to hide his anti-abortion record, so I feel it is so important to call attention to it.
Republicans across the country have lied about their plans to restrict abortion right up until they gain power, then they move swiftly to restrict it. We have every reason to believe Jim Schultz will do the same thing when he gains power, so we have to make sure he never does.
Ken Martin is the DFL party chairman.
Ken,
I understand that abortion access is a huge issue and protecting MN Women’s right to that service ought to be a priority for the DFL. It can’t be the only priority though – it isn’t a “good” enough issue to bank everything on. I don’t like how it feels.
I mean I don’t want you to relagate my vote this fall to either a “pro choice” or “pro life” vote – I don’t want to be motivated by abortion. I respect that women ought to have the right to make decisions regarding their body – that’s why I accept it but I absolutely don’t like abortion.
In the Roe v. Wade era, I was able to remove the ethical and moral considerations of my pro choice support due to that fact that my own civil liberties were protected by that super precedent decision – that is no longer the case. Now I feel like I’m having to make an actual judgement on abortion itself just to cast a vote.
I feel like that by design – the GOP has been framing this for years.
I feel like the Democrats are playing right into the GOP’s hand – don’t do that with the DFL.
Perhaps next election cycle the DFL can present something the GOP must react to. Truthfully I don’t understand how you missed the boat on legal weed. If every DFL candidate spent this campaign cycle telling their constituents “MN could be Colorado if it weren’t for those darn Republicans” and framed this election on the economic benefits, blah blah – that’s something you’d get overwhelming support for.
Abortion isn’t an issue like that. I expect you will understand that more in a few weeks.
Be better Ken. Take care.
– Jakksen
Apparently Schultz doesn’t believe that seeing that laws are enforced is part of an Attorney General’s job.
Thank you Ken for accurately exposing Republican candidate Schultz’s hypocrisy.
Nothing new: Republican = women are 2nd class citizens that are too stupid to make their own bodily decisions, need some old religious, anti-equality white guys to make those decisions for them.
It must be a terrible burden knowing what other people will do in the future. Perhaps Mr. Martin could tell us who wins the election?
This is a terrific and direct statement of Jim Schultz’s deficiencies as a candidate to be Minnesota’s chief legal officer. I’d only add a couple of things:
1. Schultz has been out of law school about a decade and he’s had three — at least three — jobs. That would raise the eyebrows in any HR department. He’s also way too callow and lacking in experience, both legal and administrative, to be AG. Schultz is strictly junior varsity.
2. He’s a slavish sycophant for police. He has the support of police guilds because they figure he’d be supine on police use of excessive force cases. But Ellison has the support of prosecutors.
I suspect many of us lefties were not all that thrilled about Ellison running for AG in 2018, which came about during the chaotic DFL state convention. In a year favorable to Dems, Ellison brought up the rear for constitutional offices. That he may be the first DFLer to lose a statewide contest since 2006, and the first DFLer to lose the AG’s race in my lifetime, should surprise no one.
What else would you say there, Mr. Martin? The DFL only has one platform right now, abortion.
Ellison is supposed to help keep our state safe. He has failed in so many aspects of that it is just plain sad. So maybe someone new that supports victims and our much maligned police would be a much better choice than someone in the office who has failed to do so. Ellison is only using his position for his own ambition and it shows. The people in our state need someone who cares for them, not themselves.
Gee Bob, seems they just nailed one of the fire starters from the riots, and surprise, surprise its an out stater! More poor performance by the AG? Seems that wasn’t part of his job, but H. county got the arsonist. But better to blame folks for things they aren’t responsible for don’t you think? Its the “R” way of doing things.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/man-captured-in-mexico-after-burning-down-mn-high-school-feds/ar-AA136Yxo?ocid=hponeservicefeed&cvid=3779684b75ff4d97b422bf850531a26b
Mr. Martin,
Do you believe in “My Body, My Choice” or the restriction on abortion imposed by men in black robes on the SCOTUS?
Come now Ron, you keep framing your tired, old, vaccine complaint wrong. Its “Your body, my choice”. When you can show evidence of your apparent belief in the contagious nature of pregnancy, you MIGHT approach something like a cogent argument, but we both know that’s never gonna happen.