CHAPTER 170. PROHIBITED ACTS REGARDING ABORTION - Texas Statutes

HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE

TITLE 2. HEALTH

SUBTITLE H. PUBLIC HEALTH PROVISIONS

CHAPTER 170. PROHIBITED ACTS REGARDING ABORTION

Sec. 170.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:

(1) "Abortion" means an act involving the use of an instrument,

medicine, drug, or other substance or device developed to

terminate the pregnancy of a woman if the act is done with an

intention other than to:

(A) increase the probability of a live birth of the unborn child

of the woman;

(B) preserve the life or health of the child; or

(C) remove a dead fetus.

(2) "Physician" means an individual licensed to practice

medicine in this state.

(3) "Viable" means the stage of fetal development when, in the

medical judgment of the attending physician based on the

particular facts of the case, an unborn child possesses the

capacity to live outside its mother's womb after its premature

birth from any cause. The term does not include a fetus whose

biparietal diameter is less than 60 millimeters.

Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 388, Sec. 5, eff. Sept. 1,

1999. Amended by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1420, Sec. 10.001,

eff. Sept. 1, 2001.

Sec. 170.002. PROHIBITED ACTS; EXEMPTION. (a) Except as

provided by Subsection (b), a person may not intentionally or

knowingly perform an abortion on a woman who is pregnant with a

viable unborn child during the third trimester of the pregnancy.

(b) Subsection (a) does not prohibit a person from performing an

abortion if at the time of the abortion the person is a physician

and concludes in good faith according to the physician's best

medical judgment that:

(1) the fetus is not a viable fetus and the pregnancy is not in

the third trimester;

(2) the abortion is necessary to prevent the death or a

substantial risk of serious impairment to the physical or mental

health of the woman; or

(3) the fetus has a severe and irreversible abnormality,

identified by reliable diagnostic procedures.

(c) A physician who performs an abortion that, according to the

physician's best medical judgment at the time of the abortion, is

to abort a viable unborn child during the third trimester of the

pregnancy shall certify in writing to the department, on a form

prescribed by the department, the medical indications supporting

the physician's judgment that the abortion was authorized by

Subsection (b)(2) or (3). The certification must be made not

later than the 30th day after the date the abortion was

performed.

Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 388, Sec. 5, eff. Sept. 1,

1999.