Teresa Collett is a law professor and director of the Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas, but she also serves in a private capacity as lead counsel supporting a group of about 50 pro-life mothers called MOMS (Mothers Offering Maternal Support) seeking to protect the unborn in Minnesota.
The women came together out of their concern to protect not just their daughters, but “all Minnesota women from overreaching by the abortion industry,” Collett said. She recently joined “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley to discuss the MOMS group and the motion to intervene it filed in Ramsey County District Court Sept. 12, after a judge ruled July 13 that six laws regulating abortion in Minnesota were unconstitutional under the state constitution.
Teresa Collett
As a mother of two adult daughters and grandmother of eight, Collett said it’s important to her that the laws are protected.
“The laws were challenged by a group that originally included the Unitarian Church, which the court said, ‘I’m sorry; you can’t be a part of this litigation,’” Collett said. “But an abortion provider, a doctor who provides abortions, a nurse who wants to provide abortions, as well as an abortion funding group brought a lawsuit based on the Minnesota constitution saying that our parental notification law, our informed consent law, our waiting period law, our physician-only law, and then the penalties that attach when somebody violates those, as well as our reporting law and the hospitalization requirement for abortions that are performed after the first trimester — these abortion providers said these are all unconstitutional because of a decision … from the Minnesota Supreme Court a few decades back called Doe v. Gomez.”
The court did uphold the duty of abortion providers to provide “at least some information” to the Minnesota Department of Health, Collett said, but the others — informed consent, waiting period, parental notification, penalties for violating them, limiting performing abortions as described to doctors only — no longer in effect if the trial court decision is allowed to stand, she said.
So MOMS came together out of concern to protect women and asked the trial court to “allow us to come in and defend these laws in a way that the attorney general of the state did not,” Collett said. “And that’s really the crux of the complaint.”
Collett is optimistic the trial court will decide the MOMS are right “and they have a constitutional right as parents (under the state and federal constitutions) to protect the interests of their daughters, and so I’m going to let them in and let’s see what they have to say,” she said.
“Women ought to be given all the information about pregnancy and the risks of the procedure of abortion and the opportunities that are available to support them if they choose to continue their pregnancy, (including) the fact that the sexual partner who is the father of the child has an obligation to pay for child support regardless of whether he’s insisting she get the abortion or not,” Collett said.
That information is helpful to women making a decision about continuing or ending their pregnancy, and MOMS is supportive of that, she said.
Mothers who have at least one minor daughter and are interested in becoming involved with the MOMS group can email [email protected].
To hear more details about the case and its status, listen to the full interview 9 p.m. Sept. 30 during the “Practicing Catholic” show, which repeats 1 p.m. Oct. 1 and 2 p.m. Oct. 2 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Michael Naughton, director of the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, who discusses how to reclaim time on Sundays to develop meaningful connections with family members and friends; and marriage and family therapist Michelle Muff, who provides tips for moving from hurt and resentment toward forgiveness and reconciliation with a friend or spouse.
Listen to their interviews after they have aired at:
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