The St. Paul City Council waded into a national debate over abortion access Wednesday.
By a vote of 7-0, the council approved a resolution recognizing March 10 as Abortion Providers Appreciation Day in St. Paul.
The timing of the resolution — which drew no public discussion — was no accident. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday took a case involving a Louisiana law that requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals no more than 30 miles away.
The resolution specifically recognizes the memory of Dr. David Gunn, an abortion provider shot and killed on March 10, 1993 in Florida. It was sponsored by four of the seven council members: Rebecca Noecker, Nelsie Yang, Dai Thao and Jane Prince.
The St. Paul resolution notes that the National Abortion Federation’s 2018 statistics on violence and disruption “found an alarming escalation in incidences of obstruction, vandalism, and trespassing at abortion clinics.”
The resolution states: “The Supreme Court of the United States now contains a majority of Justices who may not interpret the Constitution to provide protection for the right to end a pregnancy and may overturn or severely limit Roe v. Wade, which includes the threat of women patients and abortion providers being arrested and sent to jail.”