Section 29.31. Definitions

The following words and terms, when used in this subchapter, have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

Abortion—The use of any means 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 except that, for the purposes of this chapter, abortion shall not mean the use of an intrauterine device or birth control pill to inhibit or prevent ovulations, fertilization, or the implantation of a fertilized ovum within the uterus.

Complication—Includes but is not limited to hemorrhage, infection, uterine perforation, cervical laceration, and retained products. The Department may further define complication.

Department—The Department of Health of the Commonwealth.

Facility or medical facility—Any public or private hospital, clinic, center, medical school, medical training institution, health care facility, physician’s office, infirmary, dispensary, ambulatory surgical treatment center, or other institution or location wherein medical care is provided to any person and which performs abortions on an elective basis.

First trimester—The first 12 weeks of gestation.

Freestanding facility (clinic)—A facility owned and operated by an individual, group of individuals, health agency, or corporation and meeting all recommendations specified in this subchapter except ownership and operation by a hospital.

Gestational age—What, in the judgment of the attending physician, will with reasonable probability be the gestational age of the unborn child at the time the abortion is planned to be performed.

Hospital—An institution offering inpatient services for medical, surgical, obstetrical, pediatric, and other care of persons as specified in Part IV, Subpart B (relating to general and special hospitals).

Hospital clinic—An outpatient clinic owned and operated by a licensed hospital and located either within or immediately adjacent to the hospital building, with appropriate equipment and adequate staff for safe abortions. The diagnostic and treatment services of the hospital required for management of any emergency must be readily accessible. The medical staff and practices of this type of facility shall be in compliance with Commonwealth hospital licensure requirements, and such other requirements as may be appropriate, such as the medical staff by-laws, rules and regulations, and other patient care policies adopted by the hospital. Physicians performing abortions in a hospital clinic should be either active members of the medical staff, or physicians employed by the hospital, whose credentials have been reviewed and approved by the Chairman, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the hospital Medical Staff Credentials Committee.

In vitro fertilization—The purposeful fertilization of a human ovum outside the body of a living human female.

Licensed practical nurse—A person licensed to practice practical nursing under the Practical Nurse Law (63 P. S. § § 651—667).

Medical emergency—The condition which, on the basis of the physician’s best clinical judgment, so complicates a pregnancy as to necessitate the immediate abortion of same to avert the death of the mother or for which a 24-hour delay will create grave peril of immediate and irreversible loss of major bodily function.

Medical personnel—Any nurse, nurse’s aide, medical school student, health care professional, or any other person who furnishes or assists in the furnishing of medical care.

Physician—Any person licensed to practice medicine in this Commonwealth.

Pregnancy—That female reproduction condition caused by and commencing with fertilization.

Registered nurse—A person licensed to practice professional nursing under The Professional Nursing Law (63 P. S. § § 211—225).

Surgical unit—A regularly staffed and equipped operating room with general anesthesia capability.

Unborn child—A human being from fertilization until birth and includes a fetus.

Viability—That stage of fetal development when, in the judgment of the physician based on the particular facts of the case before him and in light of the most advanced medical technology and information available to him, there is a reasonable likelihood of sustained survival of the unborn child outside the body of the mother, with or without artificial support.