{
 "citation": "14:87.1",
 "heading": "Definitions",
 "doc_id": "78689",
 "source_url": "https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=78689",
 "classification": "",
 "enacted_year": "1973",
 "last_amended_year": "2024",
 "penalties": [],
 "referenced_statutes": [
  "14:2",
  "40:1061.21"
 ],
 "text": "RS 14:87.1\n\n\u00a787.1. Definitions\n\nWherever used in this Subpart, unless a different meaning clearly appears in the\ncontext, the following terms, whether used in the singular or plural, shall have the following\nmeanings:\n\n(1)(a) \"Abortion\" or \"induced abortion\" means the performance of any act with the\nintent to terminate a clinically diagnosable pregnancy with knowledge that the termination\nby those means will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of the unborn child, whether\nor not the child survives, by one or more of the following means:\n\n(i) Administering, prescribing, or providing any abortion-inducing drug, potion,\nmedicine, or any other substance, device, or means to a pregnant female.\n\n(ii) Using an instrument or external force on a pregnant female.\n\n(b) Abortion shall not mean any one or more of the following acts, if performed by\na physician:\n\n(i) A medical procedure performed with the intention to save the life or preserve the\nhealth of an unborn child.\n\n(ii) The removal of a dead unborn child or the inducement or delivery of the uterine\ncontents in case of a positive diagnosis, certified in writing in the woman's medical record\nalong with the results of an obstetric ultrasound test, that the pregnancy has ended or is in the\nunavoidable and untreatable process of ending due to spontaneous miscarriage, also known\nin medical terminology as spontaneous abortion, missed abortion, inevitable abortion,\nincomplete abortion, or septic abortion.\n\n(iii) The removal of an ectopic pregnancy.\n\n(iv) The use of methotrexate to treat an ectopic pregnancy.\n\n(v) The performance of a medical procedure necessary in good faith medical\njudgment or reasonable medical judgment to prevent the death or substantial risk of death\nto the pregnant woman due to a physical condition, or to prevent the serious, permanent\nimpairment of a life-sustaining organ of a pregnant woman. However, the physician shall\nmake reasonable medical efforts under the circumstances to preserve both the life of the\nmother and the life of her unborn child in a manner consistent with reasonable medical\npractice.\n\n(vi) The removal of an unborn child who is deemed to be medically futile. The\ndiagnosis shall be a medical judgment certified by two qualified physicians and recorded in\nthe woman's medical record. The medical procedure shall be performed in a licensed\nambulatory surgical center or hospital. Upon the completion of the procedure, the physician\nshall submit an individual abortion report consistent with R.S. 40:1061.21 that includes\nappropriate evidence of the certified diagnosis.\n\n(2)(a) \"Abortion-inducing drug\" means any drug or chemical, or any combination\nof drugs or chemicals, or any other substance when used with the intent to cause an abortion,\nincluding but not limited to RU-486, the Mifeprex regimen, misoprostol (Cytotec), or\nmethotrexate.\n\n(b) Abortion-inducing drug shall not mean a contraceptive, an emergency\ncontraceptive, or the use of methotrexate to treat an ectopic pregnancy.\n\n(3) \"Bona fide medical reason\" means a medical condition which is recognized by\nany medical licensing board as a standard of care, except that \"bona fide medical reason\"\nshall not include abortion, as defined in this Section.\n\n(4) \"Clinically diagnosable pregnancy\" means a pregnancy that is capable of being\nverified by one of the following conventional medical testing methods, whether or not any\ntesting was in fact performed by any person:\n\n(a) A blood or urine test, whether used at home or in a medical setting, that tests for\nthe human pregnancy hormone known as human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) that\nmedically indicates that implantation has occurred.\n\n(b) An ultrasound examination.\n\n(5) \"Conception\" or \"fertilization\" means the fusion of a human spermatozoon with\na human ovum.\n\n(6) \"Contraceptive\" means any device, measure, drug, chemical, or product,\nincluding single-ingredient levonorgestrel, that has been approved by the United States Food\nand Drug Administration for the purpose of preventing pregnancy and is intended to be\nadministered prior to the time when a clinically diagnosable pregnancy can be determined,\nprovided that the contraceptive is sold, prescribed, or administered in accordance with\nmanufacturer's instructions.\n\n(7) \"Dismembered\" or \"dismemberment\" means the use of a clamp, forceps, curette,\nsuction cannula, or any other surgical tool or instrument with the intent to disarticulate the\nhead or limbs from the body of the unborn child during an abortion, including but not limited\nto the common abortion methods known as suction curettage and dilation and evacuation.\n\n(8) \"Emergency contraceptive\" means a drug, chemical, or product, including but not\nlimited to single-ingredient levonorgestrel or ulipristal, that has been approved by the United\nStates Food and Drug Administration designed or intended to be taken after sexual\nintercourse but prior to the time when a clinically diagnosable pregnancy can be determined,\nprovided that the emergency contraceptive is sold, prescribed, or administered in accordance\nwith manufacturer's instructions or is prescribed in accordance with the standard of care that\nis generally accepted by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.\n\n(9) \"Fertilization\" means the fusion of a human spermatozoon with a human ovum.\n\n(10) \"Fetal body part\" means a cell, tissue, organ, or other part of an unborn child\nwho is aborted by an induced abortion.\n\n(11) \"Fetal heartbeat\" means cardiac activity or the steady and repetitive rhythmic\ncontraction of the fetal heart within the gestational sac.\n\n(12) \"Genetic abnormality\" means any defect, disease, or disorder that is inherited\ngenetically. The term includes, without limitation, any physical disfigurement, scoliosis,\ndwarfism, Down syndrome, albinism, amelia, and any other type of physical, mental, or\nintellectual disability, abnormality, or disease.\n\n(13) \"Gestational age\" means the age of the unborn child as measured by the time\nelapsed since the first day of the last menstrual period as determined by a physician and\nconfirmed through the use of an ultrasound test of a quality generally used in existing\nmedical practice.\n\n(14) \"Good faith medical judgment\" or \"reasonable medical judgment\" means a\nphysician's use of reasonable care and diligence, along with his best judgment, in the\napplication of his skill. The standard of care required of every healthcare provider, in\nrendering professional services or health care to a patient, shall be to exercise that degree of\nskill ordinarily employed, under similar circumstances, by the members of his profession in\ngood standing in the same community or locality.\n\n(15) \"Infant\" means the offspring of human parents from the moment of live birth,\nregardless of the duration of gestation in the womb prior to live birth.\n\n(16) \"Late term abortion\" means the performance of an abortion when the gestational\nage of the unborn child is fifteen weeks or more.\n\n(17) \"Live birth\", \"born alive\", or \"live born human being\" means a member of the\nspecies homo sapiens that is expelled or extracted from its mother, at any stage of\ndevelopment, who after that expulsion or extraction breathes or shows signs of life such as\nbeating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary\nmuscles, whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached, and\nregardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced\nlabor, cesarean section, or induced abortion.\n\n(18) \"Medical emergency\" means the existence of any physical condition, not\nincluding any emotional, psychological, or mental condition, within the reasonable medical\njudgment of a reasonably prudent physician, with knowledge of the case and treatment\npossibilities with respect to the medical conditions involved, would determine necessitates\nthe immediate abortion of the pregnancy to avert the pregnant woman's death or to avert\nsubstantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function arising from continued\npregnancy.\n\n(19)(a) \"Medically futile\" means that, in reasonable medical judgment as certified\nby two physicians, the unborn child has a profound and irremediable congenital or\nchromosomal anomaly that is incompatible with sustaining life after birth.\n\n(b) The Louisiana Department of Health shall promulgate, in accordance with the\nAdministrative Procedure Act, administrative rules establishing an exclusive list of\nanomalies, diseases, disorders, and other conditions which shall be deemed \"medically futile\"\nfor purposes of this Subpart. The rules may also encompass diagnostic methods and\nstandards by which a medically futile condition may be diagnosed, including but not limited\nto tests that are appropriate to the developmental stage and the condition of the unborn child.\n\n(20) \"Miscarriage\" or \"stillbirth\" means the spontaneous or accidental death of an\nunborn child, whether the death occurred in the womb or in the process of birth. Death of\nthe unborn child is indicated by the lack of signs of breathing or any other evidence of life,\nsuch as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of\nvoluntary muscles.\n\n(21) \"Partial birth abortion\" means an abortion in which:\n\n(a) The person performing the abortion deliberately and intentionally vaginally\ndelivers a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is\noutside the body of the mother, or, in the case of breech presentation, any part of the fetal\ntrunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother, for the purpose of performing an overt\nact that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living fetus.\n\n(b) The person performing the abortion performs the overt act, other than completion\nof delivery, that kills the partially delivered living fetus.\n\n(22) \"Physician\" means a person licensed to practice medicine in the state of\nLouisiana.\n\n(23) \"Pregnant\" means that female reproductive condition of having a developing\nembryo or fetus in the uterus which commences at fertilization and implantation.\n\n(24) \"Receive a fetal organ\" means acquiring any fetal organ or fetal body part, or\nthe rights to any fetal organ or fetal body part, through an act of donation or sale via any\ntransaction prohibited by this Subpart.\n\n(25) \"Serious bodily injury\"shall have the same meaning as defined in R.S. 14:2. For\nthe purposes of this Section, \"serious bodily injury\" that includes the loss of an organ shall\ninclude a hysterectomy.\n\n(26) \"Serious health risk to the unborn child's mother\" means that in reasonable\nmedical judgment the mother has a condition that so complicates her medical condition that\nit necessitates the abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death or to avert serious risk of\nsubstantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function, not including\npsychological or emotional conditions.\n\n(27) \"Unborn child\", \"unborn human being\", or \"fetus\" shall have the same meaning\nas \"unborn child\" as defined in R.S. 14:2.\n\n(28) \"Viable\" or \"viability\" means that stage of fetal development when, in the\njudgment of the physician based upon the particular facts of the case before the physician,\nand in light of the most advanced medical technology and information available to the\nphysician, there is a reasonable likelihood of sustained survival of the unborn child outside\nthe body of his mother, with or without artificial support.\n\n(29) \"Woman\" or \"mother\" means a female human being, whether or not she has\nreached the age of majority.\n\nAdded by Acts 1973, No. 74, \u00a71; Acts 2014, No. 791, \u00a77; Acts 2022, No. 545, \u00a72;\nActs 2024, No. 246, \u00a71, eff. Oct. 1, 2024."
}