HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE

TITLE 2. HEALTH

SUBTITLE H. PUBLIC HEALTH PROVISIONS

CHAPTER 170. PROHIBITED ACTS REGARDING ABORTION

Sec. 170.001.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:
(1)  "Abortion" has the meaning assigned by Section 245.002.
(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, Sec. 5, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.  Amended by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1420, Sec. 10.001, eff. Sept. 1, 2001.
Amended by: 
Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 441 (S.B. 8), Sec. 3, eff. September 1, 2017.

Sec. 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 commission, on a form prescribed by the commission, the medical indications supporting the physician's judgment that the abortion was authorized by Subsection (b)(2) or (3).  If the physician certifies the abortion was authorized by Subsection (b)(3), the physician shall certify in writing on the form the fetal abnormality identified by the physician.  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, Sec. 5, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.
Amended by: 
Acts 2017, 85th Leg., 1st C.S., Ch. 9 (H.B. 215), Sec. 1, eff. November 14, 2017.