Alabama Administrative Code › Title 420 - ALABAMA STATE BOARD OF HEALTH › Chapter 420-5-1 - ABORTION OR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CENTERS › Section 420-5-1-.01 - General

Current through Register Vol. 42, No. 9, June 28, 2024
(1)
Legal
			 Authority for Adoption of Rules.
Under and by virtue of authority vested
			 in it by the Legislature of Alabama (
Code of Ala.
			 1975
, Section
			 22-21-20, et seq.), the State
			 Board of Health does hereby adopt and promulgate the following rules governing
			 outpatient abortion or reproductive health centers licensed to operate in the
			 State of Alabama.
(2)
Definitions
(a list of selected terms often used in connection
			 with these Rules):
(a) "AAC Rule" means
			 Alabama Administrative Code Rule.
(b) "Abortion" means the use or prescription
			 of any instrument, medicine, drug, or any other substance or device with the
			 intent to terminate the 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. Such use or prescription is not an
			 abortion if done with the intent to save the life or preserve the health of an
			 unborn child, remove a dead unborn child, or to deliver an unborn child
			 prematurely in order to preserve the health of both the mother (pregnant woman)
			 and her unborn child. The term, abortion, as used in these rules, does not
			 include a procedure or act to terminate the pregnancy of a woman with an
			 ectopic pregnancy, nor does it include the procedure or act to terminate the
			 pregnancy of a woman when the fetus has a lethal anomaly. For purposes of these
			 rules, a lethal fetal anomaly means that the child would die at birth or be
			 still born. For the purpose of this definition, ectopic pregnancy means any
			 pregnancy resulting from a fertilized egg that has implanted or attached
			 outside the uterus. The term also includes a pregnancy resulting from a
			 fertilized egg implanted inside the cornu of the uterus.
(c) "Abortion Clinic," "Clinic," "Abortion
			 Facility," or "Facility" means Abortion or Reproductive Health
			 Center.
(d) "Abortion Inducing
			 Drug" means a medicine, drug, or any other substance prescribed or dispensed
			 with the intent of terminating the clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a woman,
			 with the knowledge that the termination will with reasonable likelihood cause
			 the death of the unborn child. Use of such drugs to induce abortion is also
			 known as "medical abortion." This includes off-label use of drugs known to have
			 abortion-inducing properties, which are prescribed specifically with the intent
			 of causing an abortion, such as misoprostol (Cytotec), and methotrexate. This
			 definition does not apply to drugs that may be known to cause an abortion, but
			 which are prescribed for other medical indications, such as chemotherapeutic
			 agents and diagnostic drugs.
(e)
			 "Abortion or Reproductive Health Center" means any health care facility,
			 institution, physician's office, or place where 10 or more abortions are
			 performed during any month, or where 100 or more abortions are performed in any
			 calendar year, or that holds itself out to the public as an abortion provider
			 by advertising by some public means, such as a newspaper, telephone directory,
			 magazine, or electronic media, that it performs abortions. This term does not
			 include a health care facility licensed as a hospital pursuant to Chapter
			 420-5-7, Ala. Admin. Code.
(f)
			 "Acute Care Hospital" means a health institution planned, organized, and
			 maintained for offering to the public, facilities and beds for use in the
			 diagnosis and treatment of patients requiring in-patient medical care,
			 out-patient medical care, or other care performed by or under the supervision
			 of physicians due to illness, disease, injury, deformity, abnormality, or
			 pregnancy.
(g) "Administer" means
			 to give or apply a pharmacologic or other therapeutic agent to a
			 patient.
(h) "Administrator" means
			 a natural person who is the governing authority of a health care facility or a
			 natural person who is designated by the governing authority of a health care
			 facility. Such person must have sufficient authority to interpret and implement
			 all policies of the owner or proprietor, and must be qualified to perform those
			 tasks. Such person shall be the addressee of all correspondence and inquiries
			 from the State Board of Health.
(i)
			 "Dispense" means to sell, distribute, administer, leave with, give away,
			 dispose of, deliver, or supply a drug or medicine to the ultimate user or the
			 user's agent.
(j) "Gestational Age"
			 means the time that has elapsed since the first day of the woman's last
			 menstrual period.
(k) "Governing
			 Authority" means the owner or proprietor of a health care facility, or the
			 body, such as a board of directors, which exercises control over a health care
			 facility on behalf of its owner or proprietor.
(l) "Medical Emergency" means a condition
			 that, based on the applicable standard of care, is likely to result in the
			 death of the pregnant woman or is likely to result in substantial irreversible
			 impairment of a major bodily function. An ectopic pregnancy is per se a medical
			 emergency.
(m) "Physician" means a
			 person currently licensed by the Medical Licensure Commission, State of
			 Alabama, to practice medicine or osteopathy pursuant to
Code of
			 Ala. 1975
, Section
			 34-24-50, et seq.
(n) "Prescription" means a physician's order
			 for the preparation and administration of a drug or device for a
			 patient.
(o) "Qualified Person"
			 means an agent of the physician who is a psychologist, licensed social worker,
			 licensed professional counselor, registered professional nurse, or
			 physician.
(p) "Registered
			 Professional Nurse (RN)" means a person currently licensed in the State of
			 Alabama pursuant to
Code of Ala. 1975
, Section
			 34-21-21.
(q) "These Rules" means Rules
			 420-5-1-.01 through
			 420-5-1-.04, Chapter 420-5-1,
			 Abortion or Reproductive Health Centers, Alabama Administrative Code.
(r) "Viable" and "Viability" means that stage
			 of fetal development when, the life of the fetus may be continued indefinitely
			 outside the womb by natural or artificial life-supportive systems.