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2024 Florida Statutes

Title XXIX PUBLIC HEALTH
Chapter 390 TERMINATION OF PREGNANCIES Entire Chapter
SECTION 011
Definitions.
F.S. 390.011
390.011 Definitions.—As used in this chapter, the term:
(1) “Abortion” means the termination of human pregnancy with an intention other than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus.
(2) “Abortion clinic” or “clinic” means any facility in which abortions are performed. The term does not include:
(a) A hospital; or
(b) A physician’s office, provided that the office is not used primarily for the performance of abortions.
(3) “Agency” means the Agency for Health Care Administration.
(4) “Born alive” means the complete expulsion or extraction from the mother of a human infant, at any stage of development, who, after such expulsion or extraction, breathes or has a beating heart, or definite and voluntary movement of muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, induced abortion, or other method.
(5) “Department” means the Department of Health.
(6) “Fatal fetal abnormality” means a terminal condition that, in reasonable medical judgment, regardless of the provision of life-saving medical treatment, is incompatible with life outside the womb and will result in death upon birth or imminently thereafter.
(7) “Gestation” means the development of a human embryo or fetus as calculated from the first day of the pregnant woman’s last menstrual period.
(8) “Hospital” means a facility as defined in s. 395.002(12) and licensed under chapter 395 and part II of chapter 408.
(9) “Medical abortion” means the administration or use of an abortion-inducing drug to induce an abortion.
(10) “Partial-birth abortion” means a termination of pregnancy in which the physician performing the termination of pregnancy partially vaginally delivers a living fetus before killing the fetus and completing the delivery.
(11) “Physician” means a physician licensed under chapter 458 or chapter 459 or a physician practicing medicine or osteopathic medicine in the employment of the United States.
1(12) “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.
1(13) “Standard medical measure” means the medical care that a physician would provide based on the particular facts of the pregnancy, the information available to the physician, and the technology reasonably available in a hospital, as defined in s. 395.002, with an obstetrical department, to preserve the life and health of the fetus, with or without temporary artificial life-sustaining support, if the fetus were born at the same stage of fetal development.
(14) “Trimester” means one of the following three distinct periods of time in the duration of a pregnancy:
(a) “First trimester,” which is the period of time from fertilization through the end of the 11th week of gestation.
(b) “Second trimester,” which is the period of time from the beginning of the 12th week of gestation through the end of the 23rd week of gestation.
(c) “Third trimester,” which is the period of time from the beginning of the 24th week of gestation through birth.
1(15) “Viable” or “viability” means the stage of fetal development when the life of a fetus is sustainable outside the womb through standard medical measures.
History.—s. 1, ch. 78-382; s. 1, ch. 86-286; ss. 4, 5, ch. 88-97; s. 4, ch. 91-429; s. 4, ch. 97-151; s. 37, ch. 97-264; s. 3, ch. 98-1; s. 14, ch. 2007-230; s. 1, ch. 2013-121; s. 1, ch. 2014-137; s. 1, ch. 2016-150; s. 6, ch. 2021-112; s. 37, ch. 2022-4; s. 3, ch. 2022-69.
1Note.—

A. Section 5, ch. 2014-137, provides:

“Severability and reversion.—

“(1) If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of this act which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this act are severable.

“(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), if s. 390.01112, Florida Statutes, is held unconstitutional and severed by a court having jurisdiction, the amendments made by this act to s. 390.011, Florida Statutes, and subsections (4), (10), and (13) of s. 390.0111, Florida Statutes, will be repealed and will revert to the law as it existed on January 1, 2014.”

B. Section 9, ch. 2023-21, provides that “[e]xcept as otherwise expressly provided in this act and except for this section, which shall take effect upon this act becoming a law, this act shall take effect 30 days after any of the following occurs: a decision by the Florida Supreme Court holding that the right to privacy enshrined in s. 23, Article I of the State Constitution does not include a right to abortion; a decision by the Florida Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood v. State, SC2022-1050, that allows the prohibition on abortions after 15 weeks in s. 390.0111(1), Florida Statutes, to remain in effect, including a decision approving, in whole or in part, the First District Court of Appeal’s decision under review or a decision discharging jurisdiction; an amendment to the State Constitution clarifying that s. 23, Article I of the State Constitution does not include a right to abortion; or a decision from the Florida Supreme Court after March 7, 2023, receding, in whole or in part, from In re T.W., 551 So. 2d 1186 (Fla. 1989), North Fla. Women’s Health v. State, 866 So. 2d 612 (Fla. 2003), or Gainesville Woman Care, LLC v. State, 210 So. 3d 1243 (Fla. 2017).”

C. The contingency in s. 9, ch. 2023-21, which occurred pursuant to the decision in Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida vs. State of Florida, Florida Supreme Court, SC2002-1050 (Fla. 2024), repeals s. 390.01112, effective 30 days after April 1, 2024, the date of the decision. The decision was not final until the 15-day period for filing a motion for rehearing passed per Rule 9.330, Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure. The Division of Law Revision confirmed with the office of the Florida Supreme Court on April 17, 2024, that no motion for rehearing had been filed. The Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida vs. State of Florida, became effective May 1, 2024. Section 390.011 was not affected by s. 9, ch. 2023-21. Subsections (12), (13), and (15) are repealed by s. 5, ch. 2014-137, contingent upon s. 390.01112 being held unconstitutional, but not technically upon that section being repealed.