A law went into effect in Minnesota on Tuesday that changes abortion reporting laws by no longer requiring abortionists to report when a baby is born alive in an abortion.
Previously, abortionists under state statute were required to report if an abortion resulted in a live birth, whether any medical actions were taken to preserve the life of the infant, whether the infant survived, and the state of the alive infant if they survived. Those parameters, under S.F. No. 2995, are all crossed out.
Minnesota lawmakers also repealed the requirement that reasonable measures should be taken to “preserve the life and health” of born-alive infants and, instead, replaced it with the requirement for “care.” The bill’s House author, Rep. Tina Liebling (D) described the care as mere “comfort” care.
Pro-life activists protest outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic on January 20, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“Minnesota lawmakers have revoked basic protection for newborn babies, and now the fate of newborns who survive abortion will be hidden from the public,” Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) co-executive director Cathy Blaeser said in a statement. “Why do lawmakers want to keep us in the dark? This appalling extremism is not what Minnesotans asked for. Our elected officials must restore protection for newborns who are at risk.”
MCCL, Minnesota’s oldest and largest pro-life organization, added that in recent years, five born-alive infants were reported in 2015, five in 2016, three in 2017, three in 2018, three in 2019, and five in 2021, citing the State Department of Health. These types of figures will no longer be publicly available under the rule changes.
The pro-life group added that some lawmakers “falsely claimed that the repealed language required inappropriate or futile attempts to save the infants’ lives.”
“Instead, the repealed law simply required ‘reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice.’ Disabled babies, whose lives are often devalued, could be especially at risk from the denial of this basic protection,” MCCL said.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Twitter @thekat_hamilton.
