2020 Georgia Code
Title 31 - Health
Chapter 9B - Physician's Obligation in Performance of Abortions
§ 31-9B-1. Definitions

As used in this chapter, the term:

1. "Abortion" has the meaning provided by Code Section 31-9A-2.
2. "Medical emergency" has the meaning provided by Code Section 31-9A-2.
3. "Medically futile" means that, in reasonable medical judgment, the unborn child has a profound and irremediable congenital or chromosomal anomaly that is incompatible with sustaining life after birth.
4. "Physician" has the meaning provided by Code Section 31-9A-2.
5. "Probable gestational age of the unborn child" means what will, in reasonable medical judgment and with reasonable probability, be the postfertilization age of the unborn child at the time the abortion is planned to be performed or induced, as dated from the time of fertilization of the human ovum.
6. "Reasonable medical judgment" means a medical judgment that would be made by a reasonably prudent physician, knowledgeable about the case and the treatment possibilities with respect to the medical conditions involved.
7. "Unborn child" has the meaning provided by Code Section 31-9A-2.

(Code 1981, §31-9B-1, enacted by Ga. L. 2012, p. 575, § 3/HB 954.)

- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2012, the subsection (a) designation was removed as there was not a subsection (b).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Sovereign immunity barred suit.

- Suit by physicians against state officials alleging that O.C.G.A. § 31-9B-1 et seq., regulating abortions, violated the state constitution in several respects, was barred by sovereign immunity under Ga. Const. 1983, Art. I, Sec. II, Para. IX, because there was no consent to such a suit in any statute or in the state constitution. Lathrop v. Deal, 301 Ga. 408, 801 S.E.2d 867 (2017).