Montana Code Annotated 2023

TITLE 50. HEALTH AND SAFETY

CHAPTER 20. ABORTION

Part 7. Montana Abortion-Inducing Drug Risk Protocol Act

Definitions

50-20-703. Definitions. As used in this part, the following definitions apply:

(1) "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. The term does not include an act to terminate a pregnancy with the intent to:

(a) save the life or preserve the health of the unborn child;

(b) remove a dead unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion;

(c) remove an ectopic pregnancy; or

(d) treat a maternal disease or illness for which the prescribed drug is indicated.

(2) "Abortion-inducing drug" or "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. This includes the off-label use of drugs known to have abortion-inducing properties, which are prescribed specifically with the intent of causing an abortion, such as mifepristone, misoprostol, and methotrexate. The term does not include drugs that may be known to cause an abortion that are prescribed for other medical indications.

(3) "Adverse event" means an untoward medical occurrence associated with the use of a drug in humans, whether or not considered drug-related. The term does not include an adverse event or suspected adverse reaction that, had it occurred in a more severe form, might have caused death.

(4) "Associated medical practitioner" means a person authorized under 50-20-109 to perform an abortion who has entered into an associated medical practitioner agreement.

(5) "Complication" means an adverse physical or psychological condition arising from the performance of an abortion, including but not limited to uterine perforation, cervical perforation, infection, heavy or uncontrolled bleeding, hemorrhage, blood clots resulting in pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis, failure to actually terminate the pregnancy, incomplete abortion, pelvic inflammatory disease, endometritis, missed ectopic pregnancy, cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest, renal failure, metabolic disorder, shock, embolism, coma, placenta previa in subsequent pregnancies, preterm delivery in subsequent pregnancies, free fluid in the abdomen, hemolytic reaction due to the administration of ABO-incompatible blood or blood products, adverse reactions to anesthesia and other drugs, subsequent development of breast cancer, death, psychological complications such as depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, and sleeping disorders, and any other adverse event.

(6) "Last menstrual period" or "gestational age" means the time that has elapsed since the first day of the woman's last menstrual period.

(7) "Medical practitioner" means a person authorized under 50-20-109 to perform an abortion in this state.

(8) "Pregnant" or "pregnancy" means the female reproductive condition of having an unborn child in the uterus.

(9) "Provide" mean any act of giving, selling, dispensing, administering, transferring possession to, or otherwise providing or prescribing an abortion-inducing drug.

(10) "Qualified medical practitioner" means a medical practitioner who has the ability to:

(a) identify and document a viable intrauterine pregnancy;

(b) assess the gestational age of pregnancy and inform the woman of gestational age-specific risks;

(c) diagnose ectopic pregnancy;

(d) determine blood type and administer RhoGAM if a woman is Rh negative;

(e) assess for signs of domestic abuse, reproductive control, human trafficking, and other signals of coerced abortion;

(f) provide surgical intervention or who has entered into a contract with another qualified medical practitioner to provide surgical intervention; and

(g) supervise and bear legal responsibility for any agent, employee, or contractor who is participating in any part of a procedure, including but not limited to preprocedure evaluation and care.

(11) "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.S.C. 8(b).

History: En. Sec. 3, Ch. 309, L. 2021.