Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that on abortion access, Minnesota is an “island of decency” surrounded by states enacting versions of “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Anchor Dana Bash said, “On the issue of abortion, Mrs. Clinton said Democrats neglected abortion rights from the ballot box to Congress, to the Supreme Court. Our side was complacent and kind of taking it for granted and thinking it would never go away. Do you agree with that?”
Walz said, “I don’t think she’s totally wrong. Look, I ran in a conservative district, second Democrat since 1892 when I won a seat in Congress, and I was fully supportive of abortion rights, and this is back in 2005, 2006, that was considered risky by a lot of people in our party. I think what the former secretary is getting at is that we maybe didn’t understand the threat that was coming. That we thought that Roe was going to protect us. I think there are a lot of us, myself included, didn’t believe that. I think that’s why states like Minnesota were fire-walling things up.”
He continued, “We’re an island of decency out here. It is ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ out here of the states surrounding me, from the Dakotas just to Iowa, forcing women into these terrible situations. So no, I don’t totally disagree with her.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
