September 11, 2024 | Press Release
MINNEAPOLIS — In response to Donald Trump's comments about Minnesota policy and Gov. Tim Walz in last night's presidential debate, MCCL Co-Executive Director Cathy Blaeser issued the following statement:
"In 2023, Gov. Walz signed a bill (HF 1) creating a right to abortion for any reason and at any time during pregnancy. But he went even further: He also signed a bill (SF 2995) repealing a requirement to provide medically appropriate lifesaving care to born-alive infants. Under Walz's legislation, viable babies could be set aside, with only comfort care, and allowed to die. Babies with disabilities, whose lives are often devalued, are especially at risk. Minnesota's abortion policy is now as extreme as any in the world—and serves as an ominous sign of what a Harris-Walz administration would pursue in the White House."
Background:
Previously, Minnesota law guaranteed medically appropriate lifesaving treatment for infants who survive abortion. In 2023, though, the legislature and Gov. Walz repealed the requirement that “reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice” be taken “to preserve the life and health of the born alive infant.” They replaced the requirement for lifesaving measures with a requirement for only “care” (which the bill’s author described as “comfort” care throughout committee discussions and floor debate). Moreover, the new law no longer applies specifically to babies who survive abortion, but rather to all babies who are born alive. (A list of those who voted for and against the repeal is posted here.)
Some lawmakers who voted for these changes claimed that the repealed language required inappropriate or futile attempts to save non-viable infants' lives. That's false. The repealed law simply required "reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice." Now, babies are no longer guaranteed reasonable measures that would save their lives.
In recent years, five born-alive abortion survivors were reported in 2015, five in 2016, three in 2017, three in 2018, three in 2019, and five in 2021, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. This information, however, will no longer be available; the bill Walz signed (SF 2995) repealed the requirement that practitioners of abortion report cases of born-alive infants and the measures taken to care for them.
During his time in Congress, Walz strongly opposed and voted against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would ensure that newborn babies who survive abortion be treated with the same degree of care as other babies born at the same age (so that they are not neglected, abandoned, or killed). Walz did accidentally vote for it once, but clarified that it was a mistake on Twitter (now X) and made clear his opposition to equal protection for babies who are born in the context of abortion.