Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

            Wherever used in this Subpart, unless a different meaning clearly appears in the context, the following terms, whether used in the singular or plural, shall have the following meanings:

            (1)(a) “Abortion” or “induced abortion” means the performance of any act with the intent to terminate a clinically diagnosable pregnancy with knowledge that the termination by those means will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of the unborn child by one or more of the following means:

            (i) Administering, prescribing, or providing any abortion-inducing drug, potion, medicine, or any other substance, device, or means to a pregnant female.

            (ii) Using an instrument or external force on a pregnant female.

            (b) Abortion shall not mean any one or more of the following acts, if performed by a physician:

            (i) A medical procedure performed with the intention to save the life or preserve the health of an unborn child.

            (ii) The removal of a dead unborn child or the inducement or delivery of the uterine contents in case of a positive diagnosis, certified in writing in the woman’s medical record along with the results of an obstetric ultrasound test, that the pregnancy has ended or is in the unavoidable and untreatable process of ending due to spontaneous miscarriage, also known in medical terminology as spontaneous abortion, missed abortion, inevitable abortion, incomplete abortion, or septic abortion.

            (iii) The removal of an ectopic pregnancy.

            (iv) The use of methotrexate to treat an ectopic pregnancy.

            (v) The performance of a medical procedure necessary in good faith medical judgment or reasonable medical judgment to prevent the death or substantial risk of death to the pregnant woman due to a physical condition, or to prevent the serious, permanent impairment of a life-sustaining organ of a pregnant woman. However, the physician shall make reasonable medical efforts under the circumstances to preserve both the life of the mother and the life of her unborn child in a manner consistent with reasonable medical practice.

            (vi) The removal of an unborn child who is deemed to be medically futile. The diagnosis shall be a medical judgment certified by two qualified physicians and recorded in the woman’s medical record. The medical procedure shall be performed in a licensed ambulatory surgical center or hospital. Upon the completion of the procedure, the physician shall submit an individual abortion report consistent with La. Rev. Stat. 40:1061.21 that includes appropriate evidence of the certified diagnosis.

            (2)(a) “Abortion-inducing drug” means any drug or chemical, or any combination of drugs or chemicals, or any other substance when used with the intent to cause an abortion, including but not limited to RU-486, the Mifeprex regimen, misoprostol (Cytotec), or methotrexate.

            (b) Abortion-inducing drug shall not mean a contraceptive, an emergency contraceptive, or the use of methotrexate to treat an ectopic pregnancy.

            (3) “Bona fide medical reason” means a medical condition which is recognized by any medical licensing board as a standard of care, except that “bona fide medical reason” shall not include abortion, as defined in this Section.

            (4) “Clinically diagnosable pregnancy” means a pregnancy that is capable of being verified by one of the following conventional medical testing methods, whether or not any testing was in fact performed by any person:

            (a) A blood or urine test, whether used at home or in a medical setting, that tests for the human pregnancy hormone known as human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) that medically indicates that implantation has occurred.

            (b) An ultrasound examination.

            (5) “Conception” or “fertilization” means the fusion of a human spermatozoon with a human ovum.

            (6) “Contraceptive” means any device, measure, drug, chemical, or product, including single-ingredient levonorgestrel, that has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the purpose of preventing pregnancy and is intended to be administered prior to the time when a clinically diagnosable pregnancy can be determined, provided that the contraceptive is sold, prescribed, or administered in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions.

            (7) “Dismembered” or “dismemberment” means the use of a clamp, forceps, curette, suction cannula, or any other surgical tool or instrument with the intent to disarticulate the head or limbs from the body of the unborn child during an abortion, including but not limited to the common abortion methods known as suction curettage and dilation and evacuation.

            (8) “Emergency contraceptive” means a drug, chemical, or product, including but not limited to single-ingredient levonorgestrel or ulipristal, that has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration designed or intended to be taken after sexual intercourse but prior to the time when a clinically diagnosable pregnancy can be determined, provided that the emergency contraceptive is sold, prescribed, or administered in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions or is prescribed in accordance with the standard of care that is generally accepted by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

            (9) “Fertilization” means the fusion of a human spermatozoon with a human ovum.

            (10) “Fetal body part” means a cell, tissue, organ, or other part of an unborn child who is aborted by an induced abortion.

            (11) “Fetal heartbeat” means cardiac activity or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart within the gestational sac.

            (12) “Genetic abnormality” means any defect, disease, or disorder that is inherited genetically. The term includes, without limitation, any physical disfigurement, scoliosis, dwarfism, Down syndrome, albinism, amelia, and any other type of physical, mental, or intellectual disability, abnormality, or disease.

            (13) “Gestational age” means the age of the unborn child as measured by the time elapsed since the first day of the last menstrual period as determined by a physician and confirmed through the use of an ultrasound test of a quality generally used in existing medical practice.

            (14) “Good faith medical judgment” or “reasonable medical judgment” means a physician’s use of reasonable care and diligence, along with his best judgment, in the application of his skill. The standard of care required of every healthcare provider, in rendering professional services or health care to a patient, shall be to exercise that degree of skill ordinarily employed, under similar circumstances, by the members of his profession in good standing in the same community or locality.

            (15) “Infant” means the offspring of human parents from the moment of live birth, regardless of the duration of gestation in the womb prior to live birth.

            (16) “Late term abortion” means the performance of an abortion when the gestational age of the unborn child is fifteen weeks or more.

            (17) “Live birth”, “born alive”, or “live born human being” means a member of the species homo sapiens that is expelled or extracted from its mother, at any stage of development, who after that expulsion or extraction breathes or shows signs of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached, and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion.

            (18) “Medical emergency” means the existence of any physical condition, not including any emotional, psychological, or mental condition, within the reasonable medical judgment of a reasonably prudent physician, with knowledge of the case and treatment possibilities with respect to the medical conditions involved, would determine necessitates the immediate abortion of the pregnancy to avert the pregnant woman’s death or to avert substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function arising from continued pregnancy.

            (19)(a) “Medically futile” means that, in reasonable medical judgment as certified by two physicians, the unborn child has a profound and irremediable congenital or chromosomal anomaly that is incompatible with sustaining life after birth.

            (b) The Louisiana Department of Health shall promulgate, in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act, administrative rules establishing an exclusive list of anomalies, diseases, disorders, and other conditions which shall be deemed “medically futile” for purposes of this Subpart. The rules may also encompass diagnostic methods and standards by which a medically futile condition may be diagnosed, including but not limited to tests that are appropriate to the developmental stage and the condition of the unborn child.

            (20) “Miscarriage” or “stillbirth” means the spontaneous or accidental death of an unborn child, whether the death occurred in the womb or in the process of birth. Death of the unborn child is indicated by the lack of signs of breathing or any other evidence of life, such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles.

            (21) “Partial birth abortion” means an abortion in which:

            (a) The person performing the abortion deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother, or, in the case of breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother, for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living fetus.

            (b) The person performing the abortion performs the overt act, other than completion of delivery, that kills the partially delivered living fetus.

            (22) “Physician” means a person licensed to practice medicine in the state of Louisiana.

            (23) “Pregnant” means that female reproductive condition of having a developing embryo or fetus in the uterus which commences at fertilization and implantation.

            (24) “Receive a fetal organ” means acquiring any fetal organ or fetal body part, or the rights to any fetal organ or fetal body part, through an act of donation or sale via any transaction prohibited by this Subpart.

            (25) “Serious bodily injury”shall have the same meaning as defined in La. Rev. Stat. 14:2. For the purposes of this Section, “serious bodily injury” that includes the loss of an organ shall include a hysterectomy.

            (26) “Serious health risk to the unborn child’s mother” means that in reasonable medical judgment the mother 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.

            (27) “Unborn child”, “unborn human being”, or “fetus” shall have the same meaning as “unborn child” as defined in La. Rev. Stat. 14:2.

            (28) “Viable” or “viability” means that stage of fetal development when, in the judgment of the physician based upon the particular facts of the case before the physician, and in light of the most advanced medical technology and information available to the physician, there is a reasonable likelihood of sustained survival of the unborn child outside the body of his mother, with or without artificial support.

            (29) “Woman” or “mother” means a female human being, whether or not she has reached the age of majority.

            Added by Acts 1973, No. 74, §1; Acts 2014, No. 791, §7; Acts 2022, No. 545, §2.