Minnesota Bishop Robert Barron Slams ‘Barbaric’ Abortion Law

ROME — Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester has blasted a new Minnesota abortion law as "morally outrageous" and "the worst kind of barbarism."

In a video posted on social media, Bishop Barron described the bill signed this week by Democrat Gov. Tim Walz as "the most radical abortion law in the country" while calling on Americans to "stand against this barbarism."

Friends, there is a morally outrageous bill that has now been signed into law by @GovTimWalz . This bill is the most radical abortion law in the country. We must continue to stand against this barbarism. Pray for the conversion of hearts and minds. pic.twitter.com/9A2CI3Xq5w

— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) February 1, 2023

The law, whose full title is the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act, establishes abortion up to birth for any reason as "a fundamental right" in Minnesota.

"Every individual who becomes pregnant has a fundamental right to continue the pregnancy and give birth, or obtain an abortion, and to make autonomous decisions about how to exercise this fundamental right," the law stipulates.

"Basically, it eliminates any kind of parental notifications so a 12-year-old child can get an abortion without even telling her parents about it," Barron said.

"But the worst thing is that it basically permits abortion all the way through pregnancy up to the very end and indeed if a child somehow survives a botched abortion the law now prohibits any attempt to save that child's life," he added.

This strikes me as "the worst kind of barbarism," he said.

The Minnesota Catholic Bishops also vocally opposed the bill as a group, insisting that the legislation "undermines our state's credibility as a protector of the most vulnerable" and attempts to create an "unlimited abortion regime in Minnesota that is out of step with Minnesotans' actual views and those of the rest of the world."

As inconvenient as it is for some, "we cannot ignore the reality of the unborn child in the womb — a living human being who is owed the protection of the community. We cannot allow state-sanctioned violence against a whole class of human beings," the bishops declared in an open letter to Minnesota legislators.

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