St. Paul Reporter

Minnesota-based pro-life and government accountability groups earlier this month filed a request to intervene in a case challenging state abortion laws, including a required 24-hour waiting period.

Pro-Life Action Ministries and the Association for Government Accountability filed their notice of limited intervention "to assert the defense of lack of private cause of action" in Ramsey County Second Judicial District Court.

The two groups said in their Oct. 14 filing that they "have an interest in ending the meritless litigation." The two groups also claimed the "existing parties to the litigation have ignored the legal requirement of a private cause of action to impermissibly proceed on a claim based on violations of the Minnesota Constitution," the filing said.

The notice was filed on behalf of both groups by the Chicago-based Thomas More Society attorneys, which issued an announcement and released a copy of the notice the same day.

The announcement also criticized Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, referring to him as "an advocate for permissive abortion laws."

"There is clearly no private cause of action for these claims, which are based upon violations of Minnesota’s constitution," Thomas More Society Special Counsel Erick Kaardal said in the announcement. "This lawsuit only continues because of the Attorney General's Office's failure, despite the availability of an applicable and complete defense, routinely applied by the Attorney General's Office in other cases, to stop it."