Governors Newsom and Walz Walk a Dangerous Line, Expanding Abortion to the Point of Infanticide

As thousands of pro-life Americans prepare to gather in Washington, D.C., for the National March for Life, one truth is unmistakable: The fight for the unborn is far from over.

While Dobbs overturned Roe and returned abortion policy to the people and their elected representatives, it did not end the battle for life – just relocated it. Today, the most consequential and egregious assaults on human dignity are unfolding at the state level, where lawmakers are quietly rewriting laws in ways that strip protections from the most vulnerable, including infants born alive after failed abortions – effectively legalizing infanticide.

That shift has exposed a sobering reality. In the absence of federal guardrails, pro-abortion states are not merely expanding abortion access – they are even dismantling longstanding legal protections that once applied after a child was born. These changes are often obscured by euphemistic language and shielded from public scrutiny. But their consequences are unmistakable. And nowhere is this more evident than in Minnesota and California.

Take action with us, add your name to the petition: End Infanticide – Protect Babies Born Alive.

For decades, Minnesota law recognized a simple, self-evident truth: A child born alive is a human being entitled to the same legal protections as any other person. The law explicitly required that reasonable medical measures be taken to preserve the life and health of an infant who survived an abortion. It treated birth as a legal and moral line – one that demanded action, accountability, and care aimed at preserving life.

That protection is now gone.

In 2023, Minnesota lawmakers passed – and Governor Tim Walz signed into law – legislation that repealed the requirement that medical professionals take reasonable steps to preserve the life of a born-alive infant. Whereas Minnesota’s prior law affirmatively required medically appropriate, lifesaving care for infants born alive after abortion attempts, the new law does not. Instead, it requires only that an infant be “cared for” – a deliberate downgrade in legal obligation. During legislative debate, the bill’s own author confirmed what that change was intended to accomplish: The new standard was meant to require “comfort care,” not lifesaving treatment. That distinction matters. Comfort care may temporarily ease suffering, but it does nothing to preserve life.

This is something that became very clear as the former Governor of Virginia, a pediatric doctor, explained that a baby would be kept “comfortable” on the table and “a discussion would ensue” as to whether the child should live or be left to die.

Now viable babies – fully born, alive, and capable of surviving with basic medical intervention – may be set aside, kept warm, and allowed to die.

Meanwhile, in California, the ACLJ sounded the alarm as Assembly Bill 2223 advanced through the legislature and was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. The bill contained language that would restrict investigations and reporting of certain infant deaths, including those of children in the perinatal period who survived attempted abortion procedures – potentially shielding individuals, including providers, from civil or criminal liability for those deaths.

By using the word “perinatal” (which is the period that includes up to a month after a baby is born) instead of “prenatal” (before birth), the law could effectively legalize infanticide. The ACLJ actively opposed the bill at every stage, providing legal analysis to members of both chambers of the California legislature and urging the governor not to sign legislation that would undermine protections for newborns. 

Even more recently, Newsom refused to extradite a California abortion provider who illegally mailed abortion drugs into Louisiana, where the pills are prohibited. The result was not only the loss of an unborn child, but profound harm to the woman involved – who was coerced into taking the drugs and left to bear the physical and emotional consequences alone – underscoring how policies that shield abortion providers from accountability endanger women while denying justice for both mothers and babies.

This is not a matter of speculation or political rhetoric. It is the direct result of deliberate statutory changes – changes that now allow a living, breathing infant to be denied medical intervention or their deaths to be investigated simply because that child’s life is deemed inconvenient and shield abortion providers who profit from their deaths.

This is precisely why the March for Life matters now more than ever.

The March for Life is not merely a commemoration of the legal travesty of Roe v. Wade or a reflection on past victories. It is a response to the present reality – one in which the battle for life has moved into statehouses, where legal language is being rewritten in ways that quietly but profoundly devalue human life. Minnesota and California’s actions are not outliers; they are warnings of what happens when radical pro-abortion ideology overtakes the most basic obligation of law: to protect the innocent.

That is why the ACLJ is proud to be a coalition partner with the March for Life. As we gather in Washington, D.C., we march for the unborn – but we also march for children who survive abortion and are denied the care they need to live. We march because the right to life does not begin at birth, and because equal protection under the law cannot depend on how or why a child is created.

The ACLJ stands with every American who refuses to accept a system that draws arbitrary lines around human dignity. We march to affirm that life is not conditional, that compassion does not mean that the innocent are condemned to death, and that the law must reflect the truth that every human life – born and unborn – matters.

We march not just for policy.
We march for accountability.
We march for the voiceless.

And when the march ends, the ACLJ will continue the fight for life — in the courts, in the legislatures, and wherever innocent life needs defending. Take action with us as we continue the fight; add your name to the petition: End Infanticide – Protect Babies Born Alive.