Montana Code 50-20-702. Legislative findings and purpose
50-20-702. Legislative findings and purpose. The purpose of this part is to further the important and compelling state interests of:
Terms Used In Montana Code 50-20-702
- Abortion: means the act of using or prescribing an instrument, medicine, drug, or any other substance, device, or means with the intent to terminate the clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a woman, with knowledge that termination by those means will with reasonable likelihood cause the death of the unborn child. See Montana Code 50-20-703
- chemical abortion: means a medicine, drug, or any other substance provided with the intent of terminating the clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a woman with knowledge that the termination will with reasonable likelihood cause the death of the unborn child. See Montana Code 50-20-703
- gestational age: means the time that has elapsed since the first day of the woman's last menstrual period. See Montana Code 50-20-703
- Informed consent: means voluntary consent to an abortion by the woman upon whom the abortion is to be performed only after full disclosure to the woman by:
(a)the physician who is to perform the abortion of the following information:
(i)the particular medical risks associated with the particular abortion procedure to be employed, including, when medically accurate, the risks of infection, hemorrhage, breast cancer, danger to subsequent pregnancies, and infertility;
(ii)the probable gestational age of the unborn child at the time the abortion is to be performed; and
(iii)the medical risks of carrying the child to term;
(b)the physician or an agent of the physician:
(i)that medical assistance benefits may be available for prenatal care, childbirth, and neonatal care;
(ii)that the father is liable to assist in the support of the child, even in instances in which the father has offered to pay for the abortion; and
(iii)that the woman has the right to review the printed materials described in 50-20-304; and
(c)the physician or the agent that the printed materials described in 50-20-304 have been provided by the department and that the materials describe the unborn child and list agencies that offer alternatives to abortion. See Montana Code 50-20-104
- Medical practitioner: means a person authorized under 50-20-109 to perform an abortion in this state. See Montana Code 50-20-703
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
- Unborn child: means an individual organism of the species homo sapiens, beginning at fertilization, until the point of being born alive as defined in 1 U. See Montana Code 50-20-703
(1)protecting the health and welfare of a woman considering a chemical abortion;
(2)ensuring that a medical practitioner examines a woman prior to dispensing an abortion-inducing drug in order to confirm the gestational age of the unborn child, the intrauterine location of the unborn child, and that the unborn child is alive because the routine administration of an abortion-inducing drug following spontaneous miscarriage is unnecessary and exposes the woman to unnecessary risks associated with the abortion-inducing drug;
(3)ensuring that a medical practitioner does not prescribe or dispense an abortion-inducing drug after 70 days have elapsed since the first day of a woman’s last menstrual period;
(4)reducing the risk that a woman may elect an abortion only to discover later, with devastating psychological consequences, that the woman’s decision was not fully informed;
(5)ensuring that a woman considering a chemical abortion receives comprehensive information on abortion-inducing drugs, including the potential to reverse the effects of the drugs if the woman changes the woman’s mind, and that a woman submitting to an abortion does so only after giving voluntary and fully informed consent to the procedure; and
(6)promoting the health and safety of women by adding to the sum of medical and public health knowledge through the compilation of relevant data on chemical abortions performed in the state as well as data on all medical complications and maternal deaths resulting from these abortions.