Minnesota’s updated abortion laws are caring, not cold

In an interview, Dr. Erin Stevens, a Minnesota gynecologist, shared her practice perspective on how changes in her state are helping families.

Instead of being required by the state to subject a child with severe deformities to extraordinary and pointless medical treatment, parents in Minnesota can now hold their dying child to say goodbye if they wish, Stevens said.

Often, the moment when parents can say goodbye while the child is still alive is fleeting. “Maybe a minute is all you have,” says Stevens, president of the Minnesota chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

That moment, however brief, can provide a significant level of comfort. That comfort isn’t there when the government-mandated standard of care requires an infant to be separated from its mother and placed on a ventilator or undergo other treatments that, at best, delay death.

It is important to note that the 2023 law does not prevent parents or doctors from pursuing all medical options, nor does it remove or diminish the ethical and legal obligations of doctors and hospitals to children.

The Minnesota Medical Association, the state’s medical society, supported the 2023 effort to repeal so-called “born alive” laws that hindered medical care. The organization’s support for the changes, as well as support from doctors like Stevens, bolsters the argument that Minnesota’s changes are conscientious, not cold-blooded, as Bohlken and Parker believe.