Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision last June, abortion policy has varied greatly nationwide. Over a dozen states have passed laws banning abortion altogether, a handful has banned abortion at 20 weeks, and five states have no restrictions on abortion whatsoever.

Still, Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Walz has just signed an abortion law that’s extreme even for a state steeped in Democratic Party orthodoxy. The "Protect Reproductive Actions" bill, or PRO Act, codifies the "fundamental right" to abortion into law for Minnesotans. The PRO Act passed the Minnesota House in mid-January by only four votes. A few days later, after 15 hours of debate, the bill passed in the Minnesota Senate by just one vote. According to the law, abortion is lawful for any reason, even at 40 weeks, when the risk abortion poses to a woman later in pregnancy increases. The law also denies parents the right to know if or when their daughter has an abortion, even if she’s under 18.

Republicans tried to temper this extreme bill with amendments. All were defeated. Those efforts included a push to ban partial-birth abortions, the use of anesthesia for the unborn child during the abortion — studies show babies can feel pain while in utero as early as 12 weeks — and even the requirement that third-trimester abortions take place in a hospital.

This is way out of step, even with most pro-choice people. About 66% of Americans who support abortion oppose partial-birth abortion, a barbaric technique that requires the abortion provider to remove the baby from the mother’s womb partially before snipping its spinal cord at the neck. With just a bit more time and proper care, the same baby could likely survive. Abortion regulations in Minnesota are now looser than they are in California, where abortions are legal until viability, which is usually between 21-23 weeks.

Democrats in Minnesota are embracing their extremism with this abortion bill. It's a travesty for taxpayers, women, and unborn babies. In more oppressed parts of the world, female equality simply means legal and social parity: The right to vote, the right to work, and the right to free speech. This law goes way beyond that. The fact that the author of this bill is a woman and a mother of two children makes it even more ghoulish. 

When there are countless 30-40 week-old dead babies in the equation, such as there now will be here, perhaps it will become clear this is not an extension of freedom but a heinous distortion of it.

Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She is an opinion columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.