Health care professionals would provide lifesaving care to infants born alive

Health care professionals present at birth would have to provide the required care and ensure hospital transfer for births elsewhere. The duty would cover professionals authorized to practice by an Oregon health regulator and infants born alive who need lifesaving treatment, including after an abortion. Care would have to match what a reasonably diligent professional would give another infant at the same stage of development. After providing that care, professionals would have to ensure immediate hospital transport and admission for births elsewhere. For hospital births, they would have to continue that care.

Health care professionals and covered clinic employees would have to report known care or transfer violations to state law enforcement. Reporting would cover health care professionals and employees of a clinic where a pregnancy results in an infant born alive. Intentional or reckless failure by a professional to meet the care, transfer, or reporting duties would count as unprofessional conduct and could support discipline under ORS 678.111. The Oregon Medical Board could deny, suspend, or revoke a license for violating section 4. This separate ground does not specify intent or recklessness. Reports would be required immediately when a covered worker knows of a care or transfer violation.

The person who gave birth and the person responsible for fertilization could seek compensation and damages meant to punish wrongdoing. Claims for money would concern an infant born alive who needed lifesaving treatment but did not receive the required care. Neither claimant could receive damages if criminal conduct by the person responsible for fertilization caused the pregnancy. For intentional or reckless violations, either person, a deceased pregnant person's representative, a prosecutor with authority over the case, or the Attorney General could seek a court order. The person responsible for fertilization could not receive that relief if their criminal conduct caused the pregnancy. A successful plaintiff would receive reasonable lawyer fees. A successful defendant would receive lawyer fees only if the court found the suit had no sound basis and was brought in bad faith.

Courts would decide whether to protect the identity of the person whose pregnancy resulted in the infant born alive. These protections would apply to lawsuits under section 7 when the person who was pregnant did not consent to public identification. If the person did not consent to identification, private plaintiffs would have to use a substitute name when filing the related lawsuit. If further privacy protection was required, the court would seal records and exclude everyone except parties, witnesses, and lawyers. Written findings would have to explain why those steps were necessary, narrowly limited, and had no reasonable less-restrictive alternative. The protections could not hide plaintiffs' or witnesses' identities from the defendant or the defendant's lawyer.

Oregon laws, rules, and state agency interpretations would include infants born alive in their meanings of person, human being, child, and individual. The definition would cover infants born alive at any stage of development. An infant would have to be fully delivered and show breathing, a heartbeat, an umbilical cord pulse, or clear voluntary muscle movement. The definition would apply regardless of birth method or whether the umbilical cord had been cut. Sections 2 through 8 would neither establish nor deny legal status or rights before live birth.