Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 50 > Chapter 20 > Part 3 - Woman's Right to Know

• Abortion: means the use or prescription of any instrument, medicine, drug, or other substance or device to intentionally terminate the pregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant, with an intention other than to increase the probability of a live birth, to preserve the life or health of the child after live birth, or to remove a dead fetus. See Montana Code 50-20-104
• attempted: means an act or an omission of a statutorily required act that, under the circumstances as the actor believes them to be, constitutes a substantial step in a course of conduct planned to culminate in the performance of an abortion in violation of this chapter. See Montana Code 50-20-104
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the department of public health and human services provided for in 2-15-2201. See Montana Code 50-20-104
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Facility: means a hospital, health care facility, physician's office, or other place in which an abortion is performed. See Montana Code 50-20-104
• Female: means a member of the human species who, under normal development, has XX chromosomes and produces or would produce relatively large, relatively immobile gametes, or eggs, during her life cycle and has a reproductive and endocrine system oriented around the production of those gametes. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• 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

• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Medical emergency: means a condition that, on the basis of the physician's good faith clinical judgment, so complicates the medical condition of a pregnant woman as to necessitate the immediate abortion of the woman's pregnancy to avert the woman's death or for which a delay will create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function. See Montana Code 50-20-303
• Person: includes a corporation or other entity as well as a natural person. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Physician: means a person licensed to practice medicine under Title 37, chapter 3. See Montana Code 50-20-303
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• pregnancy: means that female reproductive condition of having an unborn child in the woman's body. See Montana Code 50-20-303
• Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
• 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 the offspring of human beings from conception until birth. See Montana Code 50-20-303