Section 145.415 Live Fetus after Abortion, Treatment - Minnesota Statutes

145.415 LIVE FETUS AFTER ABORTION, TREATMENT.

Subdivision 1.Recognition.

A potentially viable fetus which is live born following an attempted abortion shall be fully recognized as a human person under the law.

Subd. 2.Medical care.

If an abortion of a potentially viable fetus results in a live birth, the responsible medical personnel shall take all reasonable measures, in keeping with good medical practice, to preserve the life and health of the live born person.

Subd. 3.Status.

(1) Unless the abortion is performed to save the life of the woman or child, or, (2) unless one or both of the parents of the unborn child agrees within 30 days of the birth to accept the parental rights and responsibilities for the child if it survives the abortion, whenever an abortion of a potentially viable fetus results in a live birth, the child shall be an abandoned ward of the state and the parents shall have no parental rights or obligations as if the parental rights had been terminated pursuant to section 260C.301. The child shall be provided for pursuant to chapter 256J.

History:

1974 c 177 s 5; 1999 c 139 art 4 s 2; 1999 c 159 s 26

NOTE: This section was found unconstitutional in Hodgson v. Lawson, 542 F.2d 1350 (8th Cir. 1976).