Minnesota’s updated abortion laws are caring, not cold

In an interview, Dr. Erin Stevens, a Minnesota OB-GYN, offered real-world perspective from her practice on how the state’s change helps families.

Instead of being required by the state to have an infant with severe anomalies undergo extraordinary and futile medical care, parents in Minnesota can now hold their dying infant to say goodbye if that is what they have chosen, Stevens said.

Often, the moment at which a parent can bid farewell while the infant is still alive is fleeting. “One minute may be all you get,“ said Stevens, who is the legislative chair for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Minnesota chapter.

The moment, however brief, can bring a meaningful measure of comfort, one that doesn’t happen if the state-dictated standard of care requires an infant to be stripped away from its mother to be put on a breathing machine or undergo other care that at best will simply delay death.

It’s important to note that the 2023 law does not prevent a parent or a doctor from pursuing all medical options. Nor does it remove or reduce the ethical and legal obligations of doctors and hospitals toward any child.

The Minnesota Medical Association, the state’s medical society, supported the 2023 efforts to repeal so-called “born alive” laws on the books that impeded care. The organization’s support for the changes, as well as backing from physicians like Stevens, bolster the argument that the Minnesota changes are conscientious, not coldblooded as Bohlken and Parker believe.