2019 Mississippi Code
Title 41 - Public Health
Chapter 41 - Surgical or Medical Procedures; Consents
Mississippi Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act
§ 41-41-153. Definitions
- For the purposes of Sections 41-41-151 through 41-41-169, the following terms shall be defined as provided in this section:
(a) “Abortion” means the use or prescription of any instrument, medicine, drug, or any other substance or device:
(i) To purposely kill the unborn child of a woman known to be pregnant; or
(ii) To purposely terminate the pregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant, with a purpose other than:
1. After viability to produce a live birth and preserve the life and health of the child born alive; or
2. To remove a dead unborn child.
(b) “Attempt to perform an abortion” means to do or omit to do anything that, under the circumstances as the actor believes them to be, is an act or omission constituting a substantial step in a course of conduct planned to culminate in oneself performing an abortion. Such substantial steps include, but are not limited to:
(i) Agreeing with an individual to perform an abortion on that individual or on some other person, whether or not the term “abortion” is used in the agreement, and whether or not the agreement is contingent on another factor such as receipt of payment or a determination of pregnancy; or
(ii) Scheduling or planning a time to perform an abortion on an individual, whether or not the term “abortion” is used, and whether or not the performance is contingent on another factor such as receipt of payment or a determination of pregnancy.
(c) “Dismemberment abortion” means, with the purpose of causing the death of an unborn child, purposely to dismember a living unborn child and extract him or her one piece at a time from the uterus through use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments that, through the convergence of two rigid levers, slice, crush, and/or grasp a portion of the unborn child’s body to cut or rip it off.
The term “dismemberment abortion” does not include an abortion that uses suction to dismember the body of the unborn child by sucking fetal parts into a collection container, although it does include an abortion in which a dismemberment abortion is used to cause the death of an unborn child but suction is subsequently used to extract fetal parts after the death of the unborn child.(d) “Physician” means a person licensed to practice medicine and surgery or osteopathic medicine and surgery, or otherwise legally authorized to perform an abortion.
(e) “Purposely” means the following: A person acts purposely with respect to a material element of an offense when:
(i) If the element involves the nature of his conduct or a result thereof, it is his conscious object to engage in conduct of that nature or to cause such a result; and
(ii) If the element involves the attendant circumstances, he is aware of the existence of those circumstances or he believes or hopes that they exist.
(f) “Serious health risk to the unborn child’s mother” means that in reasonable medical judgment, she has a condition that so complicates her medical condition that it necessitates the abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death or to avert serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function, not including psychological or emotional conditions. No such condition may be determined to exist if it is based on a claim or diagnosis that the woman will engage in conduct that she intends to result in her death or in substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.
(g) “Woman” means a female human being whether or not she has reached the age of majority.
