Kermit Gosnell is serving life in prison for killing babies who survived his abortions.
A decade after his conviction, Minnesota Democrats rewrote the state law protecting babies who survive abortion.
When the bill's author was asked what care those newborns would get now, her answer was chilling.
Minnesota Born Alive Infants Protection Act Required Lifesaving Care
Minnesota has protected babies born alive after abortions since 1976.
In 2015, lawmakers from both parties strengthened that law, and Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton signed it.
It ordered medical staff to take reasonable steps, consistent with good medical practice, to "preserve the life and health of the born alive infant."
It also made abortionists report every baby who survived to the Minnesota Department of Health, along with what they did to help.
According to the department, 24 babies survived abortions in the seven years those reports were required.
Those reports also demolished the Democrats' favorite argument for repeal.
Repeal supporters claimed the law forced doctors to put dying babies through painful, pointless treatment.
The state's own records showed nothing of the kind, because when babies were previable or had fatal conditions, doctors did not attempt futile measures.
The law never demanded heroics, only sound medical judgment.
What those reports really did was let the public count the babies.
Tim Walz Signed SF 2995 Replacing Lifesaving Care With Comfort Care
In May 2023, a Democrat-only majority buried the rewrite inside SF 2995, a massive health budget bill, and Gov. Tim Walz signed it.
The requirement to preserve a surviving baby's "life and health" vanished.
In its place, the law now says only that staff must "care for the infant who is born alive."
Even the section heading changed from "medical care" to plain "care."
When Rep. Tina Liebling, the bill's House author, was pressed to define that word in committee and again on the House floor, she said it meant comfort care.
Comfort care means a blanket, not a ventilator.
A baby who survives an abortion in Minnesota can now be wrapped up and set aside until she stops breathing.
Liebling insisted, "You don't need that born-alive law to protect infants against infanticide."
Her bill also wiped out the civil penalties for breaking the law and scrapped the reporting requirement entirely.
Minnesotans will never know how many babies live through an abortion, or how long they live afterward.
The only people who will ever know are the ones standing in that room.
Minnesota Infanticide Law Leaves Disabled Newborns Exposed
The rewrite went further than abortion survivors.
The old law covered infants born alive "as a result of an abortion," while the new one covers any infant born alive.
As LifeNews writer Zach Borneke warns, that puts babies with disabilities in danger – whether their parents didn't want an "imperfect" child or doctors refused treatment over a family's objections.
Democrats point out the law still calls these babies human persons entitled to protection.
But those words guarantee no actual treatment, the same way they guarantee nothing to a hospital patient denied a transplant.
Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life saw this coming from the start.
"Women and children deserve better than this extremism," said MCCL Co-Executive Director Cathy Blaeser.
Klobuchar and Smith Voted Against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
Melissa Ohden knows exactly who these laws are about.
In 1977, she spent five days soaking in the toxic salt solution of a saline abortion before doctors induced labor.
"I was accidentally born alive," Ohden told The Daily Signal.
She grew up to become living proof of what an abortion survivor looks like, and Congress has a bill to protect babies like her.
In January 2025, every Senate Democrat, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith included, voted to block the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would give abortion survivors the same medical care as any other newborn.
The bill fell 52 to 47, short of the 60 votes it needed.
Gosnell went to prison for snipping the spines of newborns in a Philadelphia clinic, and Minnesota Democrats call setting survivors aside to die an act of mercy.
Amy Klobuchar owes every Minnesota family a yes vote the next time the Born-Alive Act reaches the Senate floor.
Sources:
- Zach Borneke, "Yes, Infanticide is Currently Legal in Minnesota," LifeNews, October 23, 2026.
- Mary Margaret Olohan, "Under Gov. Tim Walz, Babies Born Alive in Botched Abortions Were Left to Die. Then He Removed Reporting Requirements," The Daily Signal, August 6, 2024.
- Paul Stark, "Yes, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Signed a Law Allowing Infanticide," LifeNews, March 6, 2025.
- Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, "Here's Exactly How Born-Alive Infants Were Denied Protection Under Minnesota Law," MCCL, October 10, 2024.
- Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, "MCCL Statement on Walz's Debate Comments About Abortion and Born-Alive Infants," MCCL, October 2, 2024.
- Mary Elise Cosgray, "'I SURVIVED': Late-Term Abortion Survivor Busts Left's Abortion Myths," The Daily Signal, March 15, 2024.
- Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, "Every Senate Democrat Votes Against Protecting Babies Born Alive From Botched Abortion," The Daily Signal, January 22, 2025.
