House Amendment 33
S 474 - Session 125 (2023-2024)
Abortion - Fetal Heartbeat

Rep. Wetmore proposes the following amendment (LC-474.AHB0443H):

Amend the Bill, as and if amended, SECTION 2, by deleting Section 44-41-610, and inserting:

Section 44-41-610.   As used in this article:

(1) "Conception" means fertilization. 

(2) "Contraceptive" means a drug, device, or chemical that prevents conception. 

(3) "Fetal heartbeat" means cardiac activity, or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart, within the gestational sac. 

(4) "Gestational age" means the age of an unborn human individual as calculated from  the first day of the last menstrual period of a pregnant woman.

(5) "Gestational sac" means the structure that comprises the extraembryonic membranes that envelop the human fetus and that is typically visible by ultrasound after the fourth week of pregnancy. 

(6) "Human fetus" or "unborn child" each means an individual organism of the species homo sapiens from fertilization until live birth. 

(7) "Intrauterine pregnancy" means a pregnancy in which a human fetus is attached to the placenta within the uterus of a pregnant woman. 

(8) "Medical emergency" means a condition that, by any reasonable medical judgment, so complicates the medical condition of a pregnant woman that it necessitates the immediate abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death without first determining whether there is a detectable fetal heartbeat or for which the delay necessary to determine whether there is a detectable fetal heartbeat will create serious risk of a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function, not including psychological or emotional conditions. A condition must not be considered a medical emergency if based on a claim or diagnosis that a woman will engage in conduct that she intends to result in her death or in a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. 

(9) "Physician" means any person licensed to practice medicine and surgery, or osteopathic medicine and surgery, in this State. 

(10) "Reasonable medical judgment" means a medical judgment that would be made by a reasonably prudent physician who is knowledgeable about the case and the treatment possibilities with respect to the medical conditions involved. 

(11) "Spontaneous miscarriage" means the natural or accidental termination of a pregnancy and the expulsion of the human fetus, typically caused by genetic defects in the human fetus or physical abnormalities in the pregnant woman. 

(1) "Abortion" means the act of using or prescribing any 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 the termination by those means will, with  reasonable likelihood, cause the death of the unborn child. Such use, prescription, or means is not an abortion if done with the intent to save the life or preserve the health of the unborn child, or to remove a dead unborn child.

(2) "Clinically diagnosable pregnancy" means the point in time when it is possible to determine that a woman is pregnant due to the detectible presence of human chorionic gonadotropin ( hCG).

(3) "Conception" means fertilization of an ovum by sperm. 

(4) "Contraceptive" means a drug, device, or chemical that prevents ovulation, conception, or the implantation of a fertilized ovum in a woman's uterine wall after conception. 

(5) "Fatal fetal anomaly" means that, in reasonable medical judgment, the unborn child has a profound and irremediable congenital or chromosomal anomaly that, with or without the provision of life-preserving treatment, would be incompatible with sustaining life after birth. 

(6) "Father" means the biological parent of the unborn child as established by conclusive DNA testing. 

(7) "Fetal heartbeat" means cardiac activity, or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart, within the gestational sac. 

(8) "Gestational age" means the age of an unborn child as calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period of a pregnant woman. 

(9) "Gestational sac" means the structure that comprises the extraembryonic membranes that envelop the unborn child and that is typically visible by ultrasound after the fourth week of pregnancy. 

(10) "Medical emergency" means in reasonable medical judgment, a condition exists that has complicated the pregnant woman's medical condition and necessitates an abortion to prevent death or serious risk of a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function, not including psychological or emotional conditions. A condition must not be considered a medical emergency if based on a claim or diagnosis that a woman will engage in conduct that she intends to result in her death or in a substantial and irreversible physical  impairment of a major bodily function.

(11) "Physician" means a person licensed to practice medicine in this State. 

(12) "Pregnant" means the human biological female reproductive condition of having a living unborn child within her body, whether or not she has reached the age of majority. 

(13) "Rape" has the same meaning as criminal sexual conduct, regardless of the degree. 

(14) "Reasonable medical judgment" means a medical judgment that would be made by a reasonably prudent physician who is knowledgeable about the case and the treatment possibilities with respect to the medical conditions involved. 

(15) "Unborn child" means an individual organism of the species homo sapiens from conception until live birth.