Minnesota “Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act” (SF 3487)

This law was last updated on Jun 28, 2016

State

Minnesota

Number

SF 3487

Status

Failed to Pass

Proposed

Apr 7, 2016

Topics

Dilation and Evacuation Bans

Full Bill Text

www.revisor.mn.gov

SF 3487 would prohibit any person from purposely performing or attempting to perform a “dismemberment abortion” unless it is necessary to prevent a serious health risk to the pregnant patient.

The bill defines “dismemberment abortion” as the purpose of causing the death of an “unborn child” purposely to dismember a “living unborn child” and extract the “living unborn child” one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors, or similar instruments that, through the convergence of two rigid levers, slice, crush, or grasp a portion of the unborn child’s body to cut or rip it off.

No woman upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to be performed would be liable for performing or attempting to perform a “dismemberment abortion.”

Any person that violates this provision may face a $10,000 fine and/or imprisonment up to two years, as well as injunctive relief and civil damages.

This law targets a procedure known as dilation and evacuation (D and E), which is frequently used during second-trimester abortions. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, an abortion using suction aspiration can be performed up to 14 weeks’ gestation, but after 14 weeks the D and E procedure must be used to perform an abortion. As such, dilation and evacuation bans, depending upon their language, may ban all surgical abortion past 14 weeks’ gestation. (Source.)

STATUS

Companion bill to HF 3849.