Walz signed away Minnesota’s protections for babies born alive

Riley Gaines reopened Minnesota’s fight over babies born alive after abortion on October 10, 2026, calling the period a “death-obsessed blip of time” while quoting a post criticizing Gov. Tim Walz’s repeal of born-alive protections¹. Gaines is right to challenge what Minnesota abandoned.

According to Minnesota’s session law, Walz signed the legislation on May 24, 2023². For families, the question is concrete: what duty does the state require when a baby is born alive?

Until then, Minnesota law was plain. Under Minnesota Statutes 2022, section 145.423, when a child was born alive after an abortion, "all reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice" had to be taken by medical personnel "to preserve the life and health of the born alive infant." Walz signed that duty away, and Minnesota abandoned the babies who survive abortion.

“death-obsessed blip of time”

The 2023 law replaced that duty with a requirement to “care for the infant who is born alive.” The same law repealed subdivisions covering a second physician immediately accessible for abortions after the 20th week, civil actions and professional-license discipline².

Writing in LifeNews, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life staff member Paul Stark reported that House author Rep. Tina Liebling repeatedly described the replacement as “comfort” care³. That distinction matters: keeping a child comfortable and acting to preserve that child’s life are different objectives.

The change came in S.F. 2995, the 2023 health and human services omnibus². The law still says an infant born alive Under the 2022 statute, responsible medical personnel who failed to take those measures could face license suspension or revocation, and a civil action over the infant’s death or injury could be brought against the person who performed the abortion. That is how Minnesota gutted the protection: it kept the words of recognition and stripped out the duty and the teeth.

1. 2018 through 2022MDH counted 11 babies born alive after abortion; none survived
2. May 24, 2023Walz signed the law changing the born-alive standard
3. October 10, 2026Gaines posted that history would call it a “death-obsessed blip of time”.

11

The Minnesota Department of Health reported five infants born alive after abortion in 2021; none survived. Those children belong at the center of this debate, not behind an argument over political vocabulary.

Article 4, section 53 of the 2023 law deleted reporting requirements covering whether an abortion resulted in a born-alive infant, actions taken to preserve life, survival and the infant’s subsequent status². Minnesota gutted that specific reporting window alongside its treatment standard. Families deserve public accountability for what happens to these babies, including what care they receive and whether they survive.

These are not hypothetical children. Across its annual reports for 2018 through 2022, the Minnesota Department of Health counted 11 babies born alive after abortion: three in 2018, three in 2019, none in 2020, five in 2021 and none in 2022. None survived. In 2021, MDH reported that in three cases no measures were taken to preserve life; in the other two, "comfort care measures were provided as planned." Then the state stopped countingthe state ended required reporting of those details. MDH's 2023 and 2024 reports list the born-alive questions as removed and no longer required⁴. Minnesota did not just lower the standard. It turned off the lights.

PolitiFact’s legal experts emphasize that federal and state protections remain and killing a baby after birth is illegal. Democratic Sen. Erin Maye Quade told PolitiFact that parents facing lethal fetal anomalies sometimes choose induced childbirth to hold their baby before death; she argued the former law required unnecessary interventions⁵.

But the former statute limited the duty to reasonable measures; it did not demand every conceivable intervention. Compassion for grieving parents and a life-preserving duty are compatible; families should not have to surrender one for the other.

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, a statewide pro-life group, is backing legislation to restore protections for born-alive infants, including abortion survivors and infants with disabilities³. Lawmakers should restore the life-and-health duty, the second-physician safeguard and born-alive reporting.

Parents should press Minnesota legislators to support that restoration. The state should not abandon an explicit commitment to protecting a newborn’s life or the public’s ability to scrutinize that protection. Restore the duty, restore the safeguards, and restore accountability for the children who need it.

Sources

1. @Riley_Gaines_ on X, 2026-10-10: History will just refer to this death-obsessed blip of time as the Lindsay Clancy era, 2026-10-10
2. Minnesota Session Laws 2023, Regular Session, chapter 70 (Office of the Revisor of Statutes), 2023-05-24
3. Tim Walz Signed a Law Allowing Infanticide, Letting Babies Die Who Survive Abortions - LifeNews.com
4. MDH, Induced Abortions in Minnesota 2021, 2024-12-31
5. PolitiFact | No legal protections for ‘born alive’ babies in some states? Experts say that’s wrong