Claim:
As Minnesota governor, Tim Walz signed a law allowing babies born alive after failed abortions to be left to die.
Rating:
Context:
The claim is based on an incorrect interpretation of a bill Walz did sign into law.
On Oct. 1, 2024, during the vice-presidential debate, Republican U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio claimed that his Democratic opponent, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, had signed a bill into law that let babies born alive after attempted abortions die.
The claim previously spread on social media during August and September 2024, following Vice President Kamala Harris selecting Walz as her running mate in the 2024 presidential election. Some versions of the claim cited exact numbers — for instance, the claim that Walz’s law let five babies die in 2021 and three in 2019.
These claims are based on a Minnesota law called the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, passed in 2015, before Walz was governor. That law recognized the rights of “born alive infant[s] as a result of an abortion.” In 2023, Walz signed a bill into law that updated some of the wording in that bill and repealed certain requirements. Anti-abortion activists used that edit, which removed the phrase “preserve the life and health of the born alive infant” from the bill, to attack Walz.
But while this phrase might appear damning in a vacuum, additional context makes it clear that the updated wording did not change how doctors would treat such a case. Infanticide is illegal in all 50 states. As such, any medical professional who does not provide adequate care to keep an infant alive against the wishes of the parents would be committing medical malpractice. Because Minnesota has other laws on the books ensuring that infants receive proper care, Vance’s claim is false.
Still, Snopes acknowledges that law’s wording change might sound alarming, and deserves a closer examination and explanation.
The law in question provides rules for infants born alive after a failed abortion procedure. That’s not very common. According to data from the Minnesota Department of Health, out of the 12,175 abortions performed in the state throughout 2022, it didn’t happen once. In 2021, it happened just five times out of 10,136 procedures.
A pregnancy takes about 40 weeks from the date of the last menstrual period to birth. However, the fetus is not developed enough to survive outside the womb if birth happens too early. Doctors place this threshold, called fetal viability, around 24 weeks. In two of the five cases from 2021, the infant was pre-viable — its organs had not developed enough to allow it to survive outside the womb. In both of these cases, no lifesaving action was taken. That’s because the medical techniques to “preserve the life and health of the born alive infant” do not currently exist for pre-viable fetuses.
Pregnancies and fetal development is not a perfect process, and sometimes, fetal anomalies, more commonly called “birth defects,” are discovered during pregnancy. Such birth defects can range from mild to fatal. In one of the five cases from 2021, the infant had fetal anomalies “resulting in death shortly after delivery.” No action to preserve the life of the infant was taken.
Given that no action was taken and that doctors are aware of infanticide laws, it’s reasonable to assume that the birth defect in this case was catastrophic enough that the infant likely would not have survived if the pregnancy had been carried to term, that the doctors and parents were aware of this and that they decided the best course of action was to perform an abortion.
Sometimes, in the case of fatal or likely fatal birth defects, parents wish to hold their children while they are still alive. In these cases, the infant is expected to die. Minnesota state Sen. Maye Quade, a Democrat, told PolitiFact in 2023 that in these cases, the previous version of the law required doctors to attempt to prolong the infant’s life, meaning that parents would not have the opportunity to hold their children while alive. In the remaining two cases from 2021, the infant was provided “comfort care measures as planned,” meaning that the doctors and parents decided on that course of action before the abortion procedure.
Below, we have included both the 2015 version and the 2023 version of the provision in question:
Subdivision 1. Recognition; medical care. A born alive infant as a result of an abortion shall be fully recognized as a human person, and accorded immediate protection under the law. All reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice, including the compilation of appropriate medical records, shall be taken by the responsible medical personnel to preserve the life and health of the born alive infant.
Subdivision 1. Recognition; care. An infant who is born alive shall be fully recognized as a human person, and accorded immediate protection under the law. All reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice, including the compilation of appropriate medical records, shall be taken by the responsible medical personnel to care for the infant who is born alive.
It is important to note that the rewritten law still requires doctors to take “all reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice,” and still gives full legal rights to any infant born alive.
Snopes has checked other claims about Walz’s legislative record in the past, including a similar, misleading claim that he had signed a bill into law protecting ped*ph*les from discrimination.
Sources:
Congenital Disorders. https://www.who.int/health-topics/congenital-anomalies. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
FACT CHECK: So-Called “Born Alive” Is Another Lie To Stigmatize Abortion. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/fact-check-so-called-born-alive-is-another-lie-to-stigmatize-abortion-2. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
“Fact-Checking the VP Debate between Vance and Walz on Abortion, Immigration and Iran.” PBS News, 2 Oct. 2024, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-the-vp-debate-between-vance-and-walz-on-abortion-immigration-and-iran.
Gill, Chris. Average Pregnancy Length in the US Is Shorter than in European Countries. 22 Jan. 2023, https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2023/average-pregnancy-length-in-the-us-is-shorter-than-in-european-countries/.
Hintz, Susan R., et al. “Changes in Neurodevelopmental Outcomes at 18 to 22 Months’ Corrected Age Among Infants of Less Than 25 Weeks’ Gestational Age Born in 1993–1999.” Pediatrics, vol. 115, no. 6, June 2005, pp. 1645–51. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2004-2215.
Izzo, Jack. “Tim Walz Signed Law Protecting Pedophiles from Discrimination?” Snopes, 8 Aug. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/tim-walz-pedophile-protection-law/.
Kortsmit, Katherine. “Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2021.” MMWR. Surveillance Summaries, vol. 72, 2023. www.cdc.gov, https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss7209a1.
“Minnesota Governor Signs Broad Abortion Rights Bill into Law.” AP News, 31 Jan. 2023, https://apnews.com/article/abortion-politics-minnesota-state-government-timothy-walz-11c3b1d5269c929e442b979ff1bac73b.
Olohan, Mary Margaret. “Under Gov. Tim Walz, Babies Born Alive in Botched Abortions Were Left to Die. Then He Removed Reporting Requirements.” The Daily Signal, 6 Aug. 2024, https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/08/06/under-gov-tim-walz-babies-born-alive-in-botched-abortions-were-left-to-die-then-he-removed-reporting-requirements/.
Periviable Birth. https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/obstetric-care-consensus/articles/2017/10/periviable-birth. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
“Roe v. Wade (1973).” LII / Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/roe_v_wade_(1973). Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
Sec. 145.423 MN Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145.423. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
—. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/2015/cite/145.423?keyword_type=all&keyword=born+alive. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
Swann, Sara. “No Legal Protections for ‘Born Alive’ Babies? That’s False.” @politifact, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/sep/18/tony-perkins/no-legal-protections-for-born-alive-babies-in-some/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
“Tim Walz Removed Requirement to Try to Save Babies Born Alive After Abortion.” NCR, 9 Aug. 2024, https://www.ncregister.com/news/tim-walz-born-alive-abortion.
Younge, Noelle, et al. “Survival and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes among Periviable Infants.” New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 376, no. 7, Feb. 2017, pp. 617–28. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1605566.
