2005 Texas Health & Safety Code CHAPTER 170. PROHIBITED ACTS REGARDING ABORTION

HEALTH & SAFETY CODE

CHAPTER 170. PROHIBITED ACTS REGARDING ABORTION


	§ 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, § 5, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.  
Amended by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1420, § 10.001, eff. Sept. 
1, 2001.


	§ 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, § 5, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.