Minnesota Gubernatorial Candidate Running Mate Condemns Use of Birth Control, Supports Banning Abortion in Newly Surfaced Video

In video, Scott Jensen’s running mate Matt Birk refers to sexual freedom and birth control as “a fast road to Hell”

St. Paul, MN — Planned Parenthood North Central States is strongly condemning Republican Minnesota Lieutenant Governor candidate Matt Birk for his recently disclosed 2018 remarks declaring that people exercising their legal right to use birth control were on the “fast road to Hell.” In the video, Birk also emphasized support for banning abortion.

“This statement shows that if Scott Jensen and Matt Birk are elected, Minnesota will be on the fast road to an abortion ban,” said Emily Bisek, Vice President of Communications for Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “This is just the latest example of Matt Birk privately telling special interest audiences just how radical he would be if elected. We should have control over our own bodies, not politicians. Our rights are on the ballot this November.”

The American Independent is circulating a 2018 video of a speech Birk gave at a conference celebrating the 50^th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, which is a statement by Pope Paul IV in 1968 that opposes use of birth control and abortion.

“So this whole sexual revolution, which was billed as this freedom, 'do whatever you want' — I don't know if it's a slow road to Hell, it seems like it might be a fast road to Hell, right?” Birk said in the video. “Because that's not what we were built for."

In the past, Birk and his running mate, gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen, have both said on multiple occasions that they wanted to ban abortion. In a video from June 2022 of Matt Birk speaking at a National Right to Life conference, he celebrated the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, compared safe, legal abortion to slavery, and said, "women used to not be able to vote, now we let them drive." He also reiterated that he doesn't believe that rape victims should get able to get abortions and said that "if a woman is unexpectedly pregnant, she could be the answer to someone's prayer."

In the same speech, Matt Birk promised that he and Scott Jensen would work to pass laws that ban abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest. Scott Jensen defended Birk’s comments in an interview on WCCO and praised Matt Birk’s refusal to “back off” from his extreme anti-choice positions on abortion.

Jensen even said he’d throw a party after restricting access to abortion. In a video from a St.Thomas College Republicans meeting in December 2021, Scott Jensen said, "If I get a chance to sign a pro-life piece of legislation, we're not just going to sign it, we're going to have a party."

Jensen also received a 100% rating from an extreme anti-abortion organization, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life.

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Founded in 1992, the Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization. As the advocacy and electoral arm of PPMNS, we mobilize supporters of all parties to defend and increase access to family planning services and fact based, medically accurate sexuality education. We work to inspire and engage citizens to take up the cause of reproductive health and rights through education, electoral activity, grassroots organizing and legislative advocacy.

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