By selecting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate on Aug. 6, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has embraced the most radical views on abortion and transgender rights, according to pro-life advocates.
“If elected, a Harris-Walz Administration would push for the most extreme abortion agenda policies of any administration,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are both radically pro-abortion and see the lives of precious unborn babies as disposable inconveniences.”
In a statement to Baptist Press, Brent Leatherwood, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission president, said “there should be no doubt this is a markedly progressive ticket.”
“This choice by Vice President Harris signals she wanted a running mate that shares her ideological views and policy priorities. Governor Walz does just that,” Leatherwood said.
Walz, 60, is in his fifth year as governor of Minnesota and served 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives (2007-2019). As governor, he has signed abortion-expanding legislation, placed transgender ideology over parents’ rights, and limited religious liberty.
In January 2023, Walz signed the Protection of Reproductive Options (PRO) Act, which allows unlimited abortion-on-demand until birth. He also increased the payments abortionists receive from the government when they carry out taxpayer-funded abortions, removed informed consent laws, curtailed funding for pro-life pregnancy resource centers, and removed a requirement that babies born alive during botched abortions receive life-saving emergency care.
“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz make up the most pro-abortion presidential ticket America has ever seen,” SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement emailed to The Washington Stand (TWS). “There is no daylight between them on this issue.”
Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life Action, also said in an email to TWS:
“Sadly, these aggressive attacks against vulnerable women and children have earned Walz a place as Harris’s running mate on the Democratic ticket.”
As governor of Minnesota, Walz has promoted gender ideology in the state, while advocating for minors’ gender transitions against their parents’ will. And he declared Minnesota a so-called sanctuary state for transgenderism.
In April 2023, Walz signed a bill (House File 146) that empowers the state to take minors into state emergency custody if the child has been “unable to obtain gender-affirming health care” or if parents simply object to transitioning their minor child.
Walz also signed legislation banning so-called “conversion therapy.” The law bans parents from seeking professional counseling for their children who might be struggling with their sexual orientation or gender identity. The bill also prohibits mental health practitioners or Biblical counselors from providing voluntary, compassionate care to minors who want to live according to their faith in the area of gender and sexuality. Walz’s guidelines also require public schools to provide feminine hygiene products in boys’ restrooms.
Timothy Head, executive director of the conservative Christian group Faith & Freedom Coalition, released a statement denouncing Harris’ selection of Walz as the Democratic nominee for vice president.
“Walz’s Minnesota has become an oasis for left-wing radicals, pro-abortion Democrats, criminals, and illegal immigrants, while hard-working Americans and faithful Christians have been hung out to dry,” Head said.
“As governor, he enshrined abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, enacted the ‘Trans Refuge’ bill to criminalize therapy for same-sex attracted individuals and promote access to sex-change surgeries and cross-sex hormone treatments for minors, even inviting a 12-year-old ‘transgender’ child to be present at the bill signing.”
Head also believes that the governor exhibited “weak leadership during the 2020 riots when Walz allowed Minneapolis to burn for three days before calling in the National Guard.”
Walz belongs to the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which has paid for its employees’ abortions through its health care plan, ordained non-celibate homosexual clergy, and promoted transgenderism and “queerness” as “beauty.”
The former high school teacher and military veteran got his first political job in 2004 as an organizer for the John Kerry presidential campaign.
