AB 546

This bill amends the definition of abortion, for purposes of requiring voluntary and informed consent for abortions, to except from the definition of abortion a physician’s performance of a medical procedure or treatment designed or intended to prevent the death of a pregnant woman and not designed or intended to kill the unborn child, including an early induction or cesarean section performed due to a medical emergency or the removal of a dead embryo or dead fetus, or an ectopic, anembryonic, or molar pregnancy, which results in injury to or death of the woman’s unborn child when the physician makes reasonable medical efforts under the circumstances to preserve both the life of the woman and the life of her unborn child according to reasonable medical judgment and appropriate interventions for the gestational age of the child. The definition of abortion that applies for purposes of requiring voluntary and informed consent for abortions also applies to certain other abortion-related provisions, including prohibitions on funding for abortion-related activities, limitations on the prescription and use of abortion-inducing drugs, and the prohibition on abortion if the probable postfertilization age of the unborn child is 20 or more weeks. The bill makes the same change to the definition of abortion or induced abortion in other abortion-related provisions, including prohibitions on the subsidy of abortion, parental consent requirements for performance or inducement of an abortion on or for an unemancipated minor, induced abortion reporting requirements, and the exemption of induced abortion from certain crimes relating to death or harm to an unborn child.

The bill further specifies that, for purposes of a statutory provision prohibiting, with certain exceptions, abortion after a fetus or unborn child reaches viability, abortion does not include a physician’s performance of a medical procedure or treatment designed or intended to prevent the death of a pregnant woman and not designed or intended to kill the unborn child, including an early induction or cesarean section performed due to a medical emergency or the removal of a dead embryo or dead fetus, or an ectopic, anembryonic, or molar pregnancy, which results in injury to or death of the woman’s unborn child when the physician makes reasonable medical efforts under the circumstances to preserve both the life of the woman and the life of her unborn child according to reasonable medical judgment and appropriate interventions for the gestational age of the child.