HF 3014

as introduced - 83rd Legislature (2003 - 2004) Posted on 12/15/2009 12:00am

  1.1                          A bill for an act
  1.2             relating to statutes; defining "live birth"; proposing 
  1.3             coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 645. 
  1.4   BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
  1.5      Section 1.  [645.53] [LIVE BIRTH.] 
  1.6      (a) For the purposes of Minnesota Statutes or any 
  1.7   legislative act, the terms defined in this section have the 
  1.8   meanings given them. 
  1.9      (b) "Live birth" means the complete expulsion or extraction 
  1.10  of a human being from his or her mother at any stage of 
  1.11  development, who, after the expulsion or extraction, breathes or 
  1.12  has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or 
  1.13  definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether 
  1.14  the umbilical cord has been cut, and regardless of whether the 
  1.15  expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced 
  1.16  labor, a cesarean section, or an abortion, as defined in section 
  1.17  145.411, subdivision 5. 
  1.18     (c) In this section, "breathes" means draws air into and 
  1.19  expels it out of the lungs one or more times. 
  1.20     (d) An individual who undergoes a live birth is born alive. 
  1.21     (e) If a statute or rule refers to a live birth or to the 
  1.22  circumstance in which an individual is born alive, the statute 
  1.23  or rule shall be construed so that whoever undergoes a live 
  1.24  birth as the result of an abortion, as defined in section 
  2.1   145.411, subdivision 5, has the same legal status and legal 
  2.2   rights as a human being at any point after the human being 
  2.3   undergoes a live birth as the result of natural or induced labor 
  2.4   or a cesarean section. 
  2.5      (f) Paragraphs (d) and (e) may not be construed to affirm, 
  2.6   deny, expand, or contract a legal status or legal right that is 
  2.7   applicable to a human being at any point before the human being 
  2.8   undergoes a live birth.