2009 Missouri Revised Statutes
Title XII PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
Chapter 188 Regulation of Abortions
188.029. Physician, determination of viability, duties.

188.029. Before a physician performs an abortion on a woman he has reason to believe is carrying an unborn child of twenty or more weeks gestational age, the physician shall first determine if the unborn child is viable by using and exercising that degree of care, skill, and proficiency commonly exercised by the ordinarily skillful, careful, and prudent physician engaged in similar practice under the same or similar conditions. In making this determination of viability, the physician shall perform or cause to be performed such medical examinations and tests as are necessary to make a finding of the gestational age, weight, and lung maturity of the unborn child and shall enter such findings and determination of viability in the medical record of the mother.

(L. 1986 H.B. 1596)

(1987) United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri Central Division, on March 17, 1987, held that the second and final sentence of section 188.029 was unconstitutional and the state was permanently enjoined from enforcing this provision. Reproductive Health Services v. William L. Webster, 655 F.Supp. 1300 (W.D.Mo.).

(1988) United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment that the requirement that doctors determine gestational age and fetal weight and lung maturity is unconstitutional. Reproductive Health Services v. William L. Webster, 851 F.2d 1071 (8th Cir.).

(1989) Where tests required by statute would increase expense of abortion and statute regulates discretion of physicians in determining viability of fetuses, statute permissibly furthers state's interest in protecting potential human life and is not unconstitutional. Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 109 S.Ct. 3040.