Personally, I am pro-life. I believe in the sanctity of human life. I also believe good people can have good faith disagreements of when that human life starts and, if elected, my job is to represent all of those people in this district.

I have a very hard time understanding someone wanting an abortion and, in my heart, I don't believe anyone “wants” one, they just find themselves in a difficult situation and see it as a way out. As a society, I think we have been too dependent on laws to address human behavior, as opposed to building a culture of life. I fear focusing on laws will do nothing to change that, any more than banning guns will reduce gun violence.

I am on the record as saying I am not a fan of pushing to prohibit abortion at conception. I say this for a couple reasons. The first being, I do not think it is the majority opinion of the people in this district. I think a majority does want it prohibited, but cannot come to a consensus of when. Because of that, if we focus on an all or nothing game plan, we risk not having the support to change anything, resulting in not saving any babies because we will not be able to change the law as it is now, which allows abortions all the way to birth.

While my goal is to end abortion, and the perceived need for abortions, our first priority needs to be rolling back the current law, if even a little at a time. We need to start somewhere, and I am prepared to introduce legislation on day one that would prohibit abortion after 18 weeks unless there is a physical danger to the mother. I think this is a position that is achievable and in line with the majority of Minnesotans.

I will also push legislation stating that no medical procedure, to include abortion, can be performed on a minor without parental consent, a court order, or in a documented medical emergency. Let’s get this done, then we can start working on building a majority to further move that line.  

In the meantime, we need to ensure funding and counseling is available for new mothers to help lay out ALL their options. We, the people, need to ensure these counseling services are funded, even if the government won't do it.  We need comprehensive action to stop abortions. The government has never succeeded in stopping anything. Government can assist with laws, but if we do not change our culture, it will not work.

We need to make progress toward saving lives and we can not let perfection be the enemy of progress.

At the end of the day, I am here to represent you, and if a majority of the people want all or nothing, then that is what I will do. However, by doing that I fear we will be playing right into the DFL’s hands, and never get any restrictions in place. It's time we flip the narrative.