2022 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 44 - Health
Chapter 41 - Abortions
Section 44-41-610. Definitions.
As used in this article:
(1) "Conception" means fertilization.
(2) "Contraceptive" means a drug, device, or chemical that prevents conception.
(3) "Fetal heartbeat" means cardiac activity, or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart, within the gestational sac.
(4) "Gestational age" means the age of an unborn human individual as calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period of a pregnant woman.
(5) "Gestational sac" means the structure that comprises the extraembryonic membranes that envelop the human fetus and that is typically visible by ultrasound after the fourth week of pregnancy.
(6) "Human fetus" or "unborn child" each means an individual organism of the species homo sapiens from fertilization until live birth.
(7) "Intrauterine pregnancy" means a pregnancy in which a human fetus is attached to the placenta within the uterus of a pregnant woman.
(8) "Medical emergency" means a condition that, by any reasonable medical judgment, so complicates the medical condition of a pregnant woman that it necessitates the immediate abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death without first determining whether there is a detectable fetal heartbeat or for which the delay necessary to determine whether there is a detectable fetal heartbeat will create serious risk of a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function, not including psychological or emotional conditions. A condition must not be considered a medical emergency if based on a claim or diagnosis that a woman will engage in conduct that she intends to result in her death or in a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.
(9) "Physician" means any person licensed to practice medicine and surgery, or osteopathic medicine and surgery, in this State.
(10) "Reasonable medical judgment" means a medical judgment that would be made by a reasonably prudent physician who is knowledgeable about the case and the treatment possibilities with respect to the medical conditions involved.
(11) "Spontaneous miscarriage" means the natural or accidental termination of a pregnancy and the expulsion of the human fetus, typically caused by genetic defects in the human fetus or physical abnormalities in the pregnant woman.
HISTORY: 2021 Act No. 1 (S.1), Section 3, eff February 18, 2021.
Validity
For the validity of this section, see Planned Parenthood South Atlantic v. Wilson, 26 F.4th 600 (4th Cir. February 22, 2022), vacated by Planned Parenthood South Atlantic v. Wilson, 2022 WL 2900658 (4th Cir. July 21, 2022); see Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Org., No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. _, 2022 WL 2276808 (U.S. June 24, 2022).
