When the stepmother of Democratic Minnesota state Sen. Nicole Mitchell reported a home break-in around 4:45 a.m. Monday, she said she was armed with “a little steak knife” after finding an intruder next to her bed, according to a 911 call transcript obtained by Fox News Digital Thursday.

Mitchell’s stepmother told a dispatcher the intruder ran downstairs to the basement of her home in the 700 block of Granger Road in Detroit Lakes, and she didn’t know if the person was “breaking out the back window.”

Mitchell was found and arrested at the home after police arrived and allegedly found her wearing all black with a flashlight covered with a black sock nearby. She was charged with first-degree burglary.

When the dispatcher asked if the caller got a good look at the intruder, she responded: “No, it was completely dark. I tripped over ’em. Ah, he was on the floor next to my bed. He ran downstairs into my basement.”

DEMOCRATIC MINNESOTA STATE SENATOR CLAIMS SHE WAS CHECKING IN ON ILL LOVED ONE DURING ALLEGED BURGLARY

The caller also told the dispatcher she had grabbed “a little steak knife.” Throughout the call, she only referred to the intruder as “he” and never suggested she knew who had entered her home. 

Mitchell denied the burglary allegation in a Facebook post Tuesday, claiming she went to check on “a loved one” with Alzheimer’s after learning of medical information which caused her “grave concern.”

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According to the 911 call transcript, the dispatcher asked the caller if she could hear anyone breaking out the window in the basement.

“I’m not hearing anything right now,” she responded. “Maybe the window is already open down there. There’s a basement — a drop window that can crank open. I don’t know.”

According to a criminal complaint, responding officers found that a black backpack belonging to Mitchell was propping open a basement window. Inside the backpack, officers found a laptop belonging to the stepmother, who told officers that she never gave it to Mitchell.

Mitchell was elected to represent Minnesota’s Senate District 47 in 2022. (Minnesota State Senate)

Mitchell acknowledged she entered through a window and told investigators she was trying to get her late father’s ashes, photos, a flannel shirt and other items of sentimental value, the criminal complaint said. Mitchell claimed her stepmother had stopped speaking to her after her father’s death and refused to give her the items.

DEMOCRATIC MINNESOTA STATE SENATOR CHARGED WITH FIRST-DEGREE BURGLARY AFTER BREAKING INTO STEPMOTHER’S HOUSE

“I know I did something bad,” Mitchell is quoted as saying in the complaint.

Mitchell is accused of breaking into her stepmother’s home and stealing a laptop. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)

In Mitchell’s Facebook post, the state senator said she entered the home but did not explain why she apparently entered through a window in the dark early morning hours.

“Unfortunately, I startled this close relative, exacerbating paranoia, and I was accused of stealing, which I absolutely deny,” Mitchell wrote.

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Mitchell, of Woodbury, has represented District 47 since she was elected to the state Senate in 2022. She was previously a meteorologist for KSTP-TV and Minnesota Public Radio and serves as a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard.

For decades, the abortion wars have centered on whether a woman should be able to decide when and if she has a child. But with increasingly strict restrictions on reproductive rights being enacted across the United States, these debates are charting new, unfamiliar territory — medical care for women who have had miscarriages.

Up to one in four women who know they are pregnant will miscarry, according to the National Library of Medicine. Although most miscarriages resolve naturally, some require medical intervention that is similar to an elective abortion.

Democrats, who believe abortion led to strong outings in the 2020 and 2022 elections, are now showcasing the dangers of miscarriages as another reason to support abortion rights — and Democrats.

A seven-figure April ad buy in battleground states by President Biden’s reelection campaign highlights the story of a happily married pregnant Texas woman named Amanda Zurawski.

“At 18 weeks, Amanda’s water broke and she had a miscarriage,” the ad reads, with white lettering against a black background. “Because Donald Trump killed Roe v Wade, Amanda was denied standard medical care to prevent an infection, an abortion.”

The 60-second ad concludes “Donald Trump did this,” after showing Zurawski and her husband, Josh, looking through a box of items that they had bought in anticipation of the birth of their first child, including a baby book and the outfit they planned to dress her in to bring her home from the hospital.

The Biden campaign launched this ad a day before the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a near-total abortion ban dating back to 1864, a ruling that former President Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee, Arizona Senate hopeful Kari Lake and other Republicans have struggled to explain as they simultaneously celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court overturning a federal right to abortion.

But the ad also reflects a reframing of how abortion is discussed as a moral issue. Democrat Bill Clinton famously said the procedure should be “safe, legal and rare” during his successful 1992 presidential bid.

But now even liberals say the emphasis on “rare” failed to recognize the medical necessity of some abortions, such as those performed after a miscarriage. Clinton’s framing also carried a connotation of shame for a woman seeking an abortion, whatever the reason.

“That framework was harmful and perpetuates stigma,” said Kelly Baden, vice president of public policy at the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research organization that supports abortion access. “Every situation is complex and every situation is unique. People would rather err on the side of having government stay out of it all together rather than have politicians practice medicine.”

“Everyone knows someone who has been pregnant or loves a pregnant person,” she added. “To think that somebody’s health might not be protected even in a wanted pregnancy really cuts through some of the stigma abortion has had to face in the last 50 years.”

Evangelical leader Ralph Reed, the founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, counters that focusing on potential restrictions on miscarriage care — or fertility treatments in the aftermath of an Alabama Supreme Court ruling earlier this year — are red herrings put forth by liberals.

“This is a strategy to try and change the subject and shift the narrative,” Reed said.

“I know the Democrats want to develop it as a talking point,” he added, “but I can’t imagine that pro-life laws are going to lead women to not be able to get treated for a miscarriage. I think that’s the talking point they are trying to develop because they don’t want to talk about their own position on abortion. And frankly, I don’t blame them.”

About 80% of miscarriages among women who know they are pregnant resolve by themselves within eight weeks, with the fetus passing through the woman’s body without medical intervention, according to a 2018 paper by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a 2019 report by KFF, an independent health policy organization.

But if the fetus or some of the tissue doesn’t pass, it needs to be removed to avoid potentially fatal medical complications for the woman, such as a sepsis infection, through drug-induced or surgical treatment.

Reproductive rights have been a political flash point for decades. But in addition to core ideological disagreements, both parties are hyper-focused on this issue this electoral cycle because of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that granted federal protection of abortion rights. Since then, several states have severely restricted abortion access, while others have enshrined such access in their state constitutions.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments in a case about whether the federal government can make hospitals that receive Medicare funding perform emergency abortions. Several justices appeared skeptical of an Idaho law that would make it illegal for physicians to perform such a procedure for a woman whose health was seriously jeopardized, but life not at risk.

Restrictions on reproductive rights are expected to be a pivotal issue among suburban, college-educated women, a key voter bloc in places like Orange County, as well as the suburbs of Philadelphia and Atlanta, critical regions that could determine control of Congress, and in some states, the presidency.

“Politically speaking, this is a big problem for Republicans,” said Barrett Marson, an Arizona-based GOP strategist. Still, Marson called on Republicans to support the 1864 anti-abortion law, even if it meant losing some elections.

“I have actually just started to say Republicans should embrace this law and go down with the ship,” he said. “Republicans should stand their moral ground. They have wanted to overturn Roe vs. Wade for generations. They finally have, and in Arizona, abortions are so limited, they literally only have one exception — the life of the mother. They should celebrate. That is horrendous campaign advice, but at least stick to your principles.”

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled recently that the 1864 law, which banned all abortions except to save the life of the woman and carried a two- to five-year prison sentence for abortion providers, could be enforced.

The Arizona House voted to repeal the law Wednesday and the state’s Senate is expected to vote to repeal it next week.

But even if repealed, the 1864 law would still go into effect for a period of time because repeals do not take effect until 90 days after the end of the legislative session. Then the state would revert to its prior restrictions on abortions after 15 weeks except for medical emergencies. (There is no exception for rape or incest.)

The uncertainty over legal restrictions on abortion and elsewhere is prompting women to seek out states where the procedure is still available.

Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, one of the nation’s largest abortion providers, has already seen women from Arizona and elsewhere seeking medical treatment here because they miscarried and couldn’t receive care in their home states.

“The impact of abortion bans extends far beyond what many people think of when they hear the word abortion,” said Sue Dunlap, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles.

”We have seen multiple patients travel from out of state for miscarriage care,” Dunlap said. “In at least one example, a patient flew to Los Angeles because she was unsure of the status of her pregnancy and felt unable to access the care she needed in her local community.

“Ultimately, patients are traveling hundreds of miles for care that theoretically should be permissible in their home state but that, in practice, becomes impossible to access due to fear and legal confusion.”

The Biden administration finalized highly anticipated regulations on Thursday, cracking down on existing and future fossil fuel-fired power plants as part of its sweeping climate agenda.

In a joint announcement, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and White House officials said the rules would target all coal-fired power generation and future natural gas power plants. The regulations, according to the officials, will help the nation meet President Biden’s goals of decarbonizing the nation’s power grid and transitioning to green energy sources like wind and solar.

“Today, EPA is proud to make good on the Biden-Harris administration’s vision to tackle climate change and to protect all communities from pollution in our air, water, and in our neighborhoods,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement. 

“By developing these standards in a clear, transparent, inclusive manner, EPA is cutting pollution while ensuring that power companies can make smart investments and continue to deliver reliable electricity for all Americans.”

ENERGY DEVELOPER AXING KEY COAL POWER PLANTS TO MEET ECO GOALS, JEOPARDIZING POWER FOR MILLIONS

Under the regulations, all coal-fired plants that are slated to remain operational in the long-term and all new baseload gas-fired plants will be required to control 90% of their carbon emissions. According to the Energy Information Administration, at least 20 natural gas-fired power plants are expected to come online in 2024 and 2025, with a total capacity of 7.7 gigawatts, enough to power millions of homes.

In addition, EPA’s rulemaking tightens emissions standards for coal-fired plants related to toxic metal and wastewater discharge.

“President Biden’s leadership has not only sparked an unprecedented expansion in clean electricity generation, his leadership has also launched an American manufacturing renaissance,” senior White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi said Thursday in a statement.

“This is how we win the future, by harnessing new technologies to grow our economy, deliver environmental justice, and save the planet for future generations.”

ENVIRONMENTALISTS CALL ON BIDEN ADMIN TO TANK NATURAL GAS PROJECT AMID NATIONWIDE ARCTIC BLAST

The American Lung Association and environmental groups like BlueGreen Alliance quickly applauded the regulations on Thursday.

A plume of exhaust extends from the Mitchell Power Station, a coal-fired power plant built along the Monongahela River in New Eagle, Pennsylvania. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

EPA initially unveiled the regulations in a May 2023 proposal, which was applauded by environmental groups and Democrats, but received criticism from business groups, energy associations, manufacturers, grid operators and Republicans, including several state attorneys general who threatened legal action. 

That proposal included rules for existing gas plants, but those rules were stripped from the actions finalized Thursday. EPA said in late February it would finalize environmental regulations for existing gas generation in several months.

According to federal data, natural gas and coal generate 43% and 16% of the nation’s power, respectively. Alternatively, wind and solar generate 10% and 4% of the nation’s power.

WHITE HOUSE ECO COUNCIL AT ODDS OVER TECHNOLOGY CENTRAL TO BIDEN’S GREEN GOALS

Since the administration proposed the regulations last year, critics have warned that cracking down on coal power and gas plants — the single largest source of electricity in the U.S., the federal data showed — will have severe consequences for Americans in the form of blackouts and higher energy prices. 

President Biden, left, and EPA Administrator Michael Regan. (Getty Images)

“We’re concerned it’s going to impact the reliability of our grid,” National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson told Fox News Digital. “This is a grid that is already under a lot of stress because electric demand is growing at a rapid rate in this country, which is actually, in many ways, good news in terms of economic growth.”

“But supply is not keeping up,” he added. “And this rule is going to further cause deterioration in the quality of our supply to meet that demand.”

JOE MANCHIN THREATENS TO OPPOSE BIDEN NOMINEES OVER UPCOMING POWER PLANT CRACKDOWN

In August, meanwhile, four nonpartisan grid operators that collectively provide power to 154 million Americans warned EPA’s regulations as proposed would cause grid reliability to “dwindle to concerning levels.” The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which oversees the entire U.S. grid, forecasted months later that there will be future power supply crunches as a result of premature power plant retirements.

The regulations are also the subject of an ongoing investigation being conducted by the House Oversight Committee. And, separately, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, vowed Thursday to soon introduce a resolution overturning the regulations.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on May 26, 2021. (Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“With the latest iteration of the illegal Clean Power Plan 2.0 announced today, President Biden has inexplicably doubled down on his plans to shut down the backbone of America’s electric grid through unachievable regulatory mandates,” Capito said in a statement.

“Electricity demand is set to skyrocket thanks in part to the EPA’s own electric vehicles mandate, and unfortunately, Americans are already paying higher utility bills under President Biden,” she continued. “Despite all this, the administration has chosen to press ahead with its unrealistic climate agenda that threatens access to affordable, reliable energy for households and employers across the country.”

Democrats and environmentalists have long targeted the power sector over its high emissions as part of their efforts to stave off cataclysmic climate change. Shortly after he took office, Biden pledged to enable the nation to achieve an up to 52% total emission reduction by 2030 and to create a carbon-free power sector by 2035.