KRS § 311.720 — KY Code / Title XXVI / Chapter 311 / Section 311.720
311.720 Definitions for KRS 311.710 to 311.820 and other laws
Status: in_force

311.720 Definitions for KRS 311.710 to 311.820 and other laws.

As used in KRS 311.710 to 311.820, and laws of the Commonwealth unless the context

otherwise requires:

(1) (a) "Abortion" means the performance of any act with the intent to terminate the

clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant with

knowledge that the termination by those means will, with reasonable

likelihood, cause the death of the unborn child by one (1) or more of the

following means:

1. Administering, prescribing, or providing any abortion-inducing drug as

defined in KRS 311.7731, potion, medicine, or any other substance or

device to a pregnant female; or

2. Using an instrument or external force on a pregnant female.

(b) "Abortion" does not mean those actions that require separating the pregnant

woman from her unborn child when performed by a licensed physician as

provided in KRS 311.723;

(2) "Accepted medical procedures" means procedures of the type performed in the

manner and in a facility with equipment sufficient to meet the standards of medical

care which physicians engaged in the same or similar lines of work, would

ordinarily exercise and devote to the benefit of their patients;

(3) "Cabinet" means the Cabinet for Health and Family Services of the Commonwealth

of Kentucky;

(4) "Consent," as used in KRS 311.710 to 311.820 with reference to those who must

give their consent, means an informed consent expressed by a written agreement to

submit to an abortion on a written form of consent to be promulgated by the

secretary for health and family services;

(5) "Family planning services" means educational, medical, and social services and

activities that enable individuals to determine the number and spacing of their

children and to select the means by which this may be achieved;

(6) "Fetus" means a human being from fertilization until birth;

(7) "Hospital" means those institutions licensed in the Commonwealth of Kentucky

pursuant to the provisions of KRS Chapter 216;

(8) "Human being" means any member of the species homo sapiens from fertilization

until death;

(9) "Medical emergency" means any condition which, on the basis of the physician's

reasonable medical judgment, so complicates the medical condition of a pregnant

female as to necessitate the immediate abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death

or for which a delay will create serious risk of substantial and irreversible

impairment of a major bodily function;

(10) "Medical necessity" means a medical condition of a pregnant woman that, in the

reasonable medical judgment of the physician who is attending the woman, so

complicates the pregnancy that it necessitates the immediate performance or

inducement of an abortion;

(11) "Partial-birth abortion" means an abortion in which the physician performing the

abortion partially vaginally delivers a living fetus before killing the fetus and

completing the delivery;

(12) "Perinatal care" means the health care provided to both the mother and child,

including prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum care, with a focus on optimizing

outcomes and addressing potential complications;

(13) "Physician" means any person licensed to practice medicine in the Commonwealth

or osteopathy pursuant to this chapter;

(14) "Probable gestational age of the embryo or fetus" means the gestational age that, in

the judgment of a physician, is, with reasonable probability, the gestational age of

the embryo or fetus at the time that the abortion is planned to be performed;

(15) "Public agency" means the Commonwealth of Kentucky; any agency, department,

entity, or instrumentality thereof; any city, county, agency, department, entity, or

instrumentality thereof; or any other political subdivision of the Commonwealth,

agency, department, entity, or instrumentality thereof;

(16) "Reasonable medical judgment" means the range of conclusions or

recommendations that licensed medical practitioners with similarly sufficient

training and experience may communicate to a patient based upon current available

medical evidence;

(17) "Unborn child" has the same meaning as "unborn human being" in KRS 311.772;

(18) "Vaginally delivers a living fetus before killing the fetus" means deliberately and

intentionally delivers into the vagina a living fetus, or a substantial portion thereof,

for the purpose of performing a procedure the physician knows will kill the fetus,

and kills the fetus; and

(19) "Viability" means that stage of human development when the life of the unborn

child may be continued by natural or life-supportive systems outside the womb of

the mother.