'Born alive' bill ignites emotional debate, advances to House Floor

Personal and powerful testimony accompanied a bill that supporters say would provide vital protection to vulnerable Minnesotans and opponents say would disregard the dignity and humanity of families already suffering great loss.

The House Health Finance and Policy Committee voted 11-10 along party lines Wednesday to send HF24 to the House Floor. The bill would mandate doctors and nurses act to preserve the life and health of infants born alive as the result of an abortion.

The bill would return the state to requiring all infants to receive the life-saving care they deserve, said Rep. Krista Knudsen (R-Lake Shore), the bill sponsor.

State statute says that “an infant shall be fully recognized as a human person.” The bill would change that to “a born alive infant as a result of an abortion shall be fully recognized as a human person,” The bill would also change the words: “care for an infant who is born alive” to requiring “responsible medical personnel preserve the life and health of the born alive infant.”

Testifiers said it’s an event that happens three to five times a year, and the life-saving requirement is not new to Minnesota.

“Abortion survivors were required to receive medically appropriate care that would save their lives — just like any other baby born at the same gestational age,” Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life wrote in a letter. 

Sarah Zagorski, a resident of New Orleans testifying remotely, said that was her story.

Her mother, after seeking an abortion, threatened to sue a doctor that was not intending to offer care to Zagorski after she was born alive. Zagorski admires her mother’s bravery and urged legislators to pass the bill to protect people like her.

Rep. Kristin Bahner (DFL-Maple Grove) said bill supporters don’t understand the reality of the families who would be impacted.

She emotionally described a scenario in her family of excitedly planning for their baby until they received a diagnosis that the baby would not survive until term. They chose to deliver the baby to let him know he was loved, to look in his eyes, to hold him before he died. Requiring doctors and nurses to provide life-saving care would rob families of those few moments.  

“What this bill is suggesting is not OK. What this bill is suggesting is cruel,” she said.