#BREAKING: Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill Tuesday to add a "fundamental right" to abortion access in state law, the first step in an expansive agenda moving at the Capitol to solidify Minnesota's status as a safe haven for the procedure. Minnesota Democrats, who narrowly control state government, fast-tracked the bill following the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade last summer, which struck down nearly 50 years of federal constitutional protection for abortion. The law won't change the reality for abortion providers on the ground in Minnesota, where access is already protected by a 1995 state Supreme Court ruling. But Democrats said Roe's demise showed how access can vanish if future judges rule differently. Known as the Protect Reproductive Options Act — or PRO Act — the bill states that every individual who becomes pregnant has a fundamental right "to continue the pregnancy and give birth, or obtain an abortion." It also protects the rights to contraception, sterilization, ...