Texas Health and Safety Code

Sec. § 285.202
Use of Tax Revenue for Abortions; Exception for Medical Emergency

(a)

In this section, “medical emergency” means:

(1)

a condition exists that, in a physician’s good faith clinical judgment, complicates the medical condition of the pregnant woman and necessitates the immediate abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death or to avoid a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function; or

(2)

the fetus has a severe fetal abnormality.

(a-1)

In Subsection (a), a “severe fetal abnormality” means a life threatening physical condition that, in reasonable medical judgment, regardless of the provision of life saving medical treatment, is incompatible with life outside the womb.

(a-2)

In Subsection (a-1), “reasonable medical judgment” means a medical judgment that would be made by a reasonably prudent physician, knowledgeable about the case and the treatment possibilities with respect to the medical conditions involved.

(b)

Except in the case of a medical emergency, a hospital district created under general or special law that uses tax revenue of the district to finance the performance of an abortion may not receive state funding.

(c)

A physician who performs an abortion in a medical emergency at a hospital or other health care facility owned or operated by a hospital district that receives state funds shall:

(1)

include in the patient’s medical records a statement signed by the physician certifying the nature of the medical emergency; and

(2)

not later than the 30th day after the date the abortion is performed, certify to the Department of State Health Services the specific medical condition that constituted the emergency.

(d)

The statement required under Subsection (c)(1) shall be placed in the patient’s medical records and shall be kept by the hospital or other health care facility where the abortion is performed until:

(1)

the seventh anniversary of the date the abortion is performed; or

(2)

if the pregnant woman is a minor, the later of:

(A)

the seventh anniversary of the date the abortion is performed; or

(B)

the woman’s 21st birthday.
Added by Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., 1st C.S., Ch. 7 (S.B. 7), Sec. 15.02, eff. September 28, 2011.
Source

Last accessed
Jun. 7, 2021

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