The Minnesota Capitol Building. Courtesy of Minnesota House Public Information Services.
The Republican candidate for the open House seat in district 35B told supporters at a campaign kickoff event in April that he would support an amendment to the state Constitution to restrict abortion, according to event audio obtained by the Reformer .
“I would get behind that in a heartbeat if it had any chance at all to win,” Steve Pape, an engineer and Vietnam veteran from Coon Rapids, told an event attendee who asked about it.
Pape identifies as a “social moderate” and studiously avoids any mention of abortion on his campaign website . He also hasn’t spoken about the topic in interviews with conservative or mainstream news organizations, a tacit acknowledgement that the issue could be fraught in one of the state’s most narrowly divided districts . In 2022, outgoing DFL Rep. Jerry Newton won it by just 232 votes.
But in April, Pape said that he is “strongly, 100% pro-life,” and that abortion is an issue that motivated him to run because it feels like “one knife cut of a thousand to kill America.”
The contrast between the event remarks and his public silence on the issue underscore the degree to which Republicans are now playing defense following the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs decision that led to abortion bans around the country.
A majority of Americans oppose the Dobbs ruling , and Republican standard bearer Donald Trump has recently made conflicting comments about his abortion views.
The Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the right to an abortion in a 1995 ruling, which the Legislature then codified with strong statutory abortion rights language in 2023.
Pape noted that any significant restrictions would likely require a state Constitutional amendment.
“We would have to surmount that problem,” Pape said. “Not saying it’s not possible, but I’m saying that a whole lot of pro-abortion people need to go die or leave the state.”
Surveys show about two-thirds of Minnesotans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
“I want nothing more than to go back where we were 20 years ago,” Pape said, “but it’s not an easy path.”
Given the difficulties of changing the Constitution, Pape said a more incremental approach might yield more favorable results for anti-abortion Minnesotans: “It’s gonna take literally decades to chip away at it until we get back.”
If a referendum isn’t possible, “What’s the next best thing we can do? How can we inch ourselves closer to the goal?” he asked. “We literally need the process going, where we start pushing it back, and you have to push it back one brushfire at a time.”
Pape speculated that an abortion ban after 21 weeks gestational age might have the best chance of passing. “What if we just said we’re gonna change the law so instead of getting an abortion right up until the day the baby is born, we said you can only have an abortion up to the 21st week, which is about halfway, and nothing beyond that?”
Abortions after the 28th week of pregnancy are vanishingly rare, and when they do happen are typically the result of tragic medical complications . Abortions “moments before birth” do not occur; so-called partial-birth abortions have been illegal in the United States for more than 15 years .
In Minnesota, the overwhelming majority of abortions happen in the first trimester, according to state data . In 2022, the most recent year with complete data, just one abortion occurred in the third trimester, at the 32nd week.
Reached for comment, Pape claimed that the remarks were “misinformation,” that they were taken “totally out of context,” and that they do not express his views. He went on to repeat the falsehood about “pulling a baby from the mother’s womb the day before it’s born,” and accused a Reformer reporter of supporting infanticide.
After being sent audio of the remarks, Pape did not deny that he made them but said, “I do not recall making the comments voiced on the recording.” He added that “as a legislator I will work to support mothers and support life.”
The DFL candidate in the race, Coon Rapids City Council Member Kari Rehrauer, said, “My opponent wants to drag us back 50 years, not just 20. I will never stop fighting to ensure women maintain their rights in Minnesota.”
In Minnesota, 2022 gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen said his campaign promise to ban nearly all abortions cost him that race. Democrats have sought to put the issue at the top of voters’ minds in 2024 .
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