Minnesota lawmakers debate constitutional amendment to protect abortion and LGBTQ rights

Minnesota lawmakers launched their debate Monday on far-reaching legislation to amend the constitution to protect abortion and LGBTQ rights.

The Minnesota Equal Rights Amendment would be among the nation’s most expansive protections of abortion and LGBTQ rights if it is approved by lawmakers this session and then by voters on the 2026 ballot.

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Over 100 people crammed into the legislative hearing room Monday. Supporters wore green clothes and buttons that said “ERA YES” while opponents wore bright red shirts that said “NO CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT to kill unborn babies.”

Betty Folliard, whose group ERA Minnesota has been pushing for such a measure since 2014, testified in support, as did members of Gender Justice — an advocacy organization for gender equity — and OutFront Minnesota, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

“This isn’t just about reproductive justice,” Folliard said in an interview. “It’s also about pay inequity, historic stereotypes and discrimination that keep on being overlooked, generation to generation to generation.”

The amendment’s wording would prohibit the state from discriminating against anyone on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, disability or sex — including gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation. The state also couldn’t discriminate over a person “making and effectuating decisions about all matters relating to one’s own pregnancy or decision whether to become or remain pregnant.”

Minnesota already has a non-discrimination law, the Human Rights Act, that applies to individuals, businesses, schools and other institutions. The constitutional amendment would apply to state government, and would protect certain laws — including recent ones that have made Minnesota a refuge for out-of-state people seeking an abortion and gender-affirming care — from being repealed by future lawmakers and administrations.

Carrena Falls testified in opposition. She said she’s a college student in the Twin Cities who is “repulsed” by the proposal,…