28-326 Terms, defined.
28-326. Terms, defined.For purposes of sections 28-325 to 28-345, unless the contextotherwise requires:(1) Abortion means the use or prescription of any instrument,medicine, drug, or other substance or device intentionally to terminate thepregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant with an intention other than toincrease the probability of a live birth, to preserve the life or health ofthe child after live birth, or to remove a dead unborn child, and which causesthe premature termination of the pregnancy;(2) Complicationsassociated with abortion means any adverse physical, psychological, or emotionalreaction that is reported in a peer-reviewed journal to be statistically associatedwith abortion such that there is less than a five percent probability (P <.05) that the result is due to chance;(3) Conception means the fecundation ofthe ovum by the spermatozoa;(4) Emergency situation means that conditionwhich, on the basis of the physician's good faith clinical judgment, so complicatesthe medical condition of a pregnant woman as to necessitate the immediateabortion of her pregnancy to avert her death or for which a delay will createserious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function;(5) Hospital means those institutionslicensed by the Department of Health and Human Services pursuant to the HealthCare Facility Licensure Act;(6) Negligiblerisk means a risk that a reasonable person would consider to be immaterialto a decision to undergo an elective medical procedure;(7) Partial-birthabortion means an abortion procedure in which the person performing the abortionpartially delivers vaginally a living unborn child before killing the unbornchild and completing the delivery. For purposes of this subdivision, the termpartially delivers vaginally a living unborn child before killing the unbornchild means deliberately and intentionally delivering into the vagina a livingunborn child, or a substantial portion thereof, for the purpose of performinga procedure that the person performing such procedure knows will kill theunborn child and does kill the unborn child;(8) Physician means any person licensed to practicemedicine in this state as provided in the Uniform Credentialing Act;(9) Pregnant means that conditionof a woman who has unborn human life within her as the result of conception;(10) Probable gestationalage of the unborn child means what will with reasonable probability, in thejudgment of the physician, be the gestational age of the unborn child at thetime the abortion is planned to be performed;(11) Risk factor associatedwith abortion means any factor, including any physical, psychological, emotional,demographic, or situational factor, for which there is a statistical associationwith one or more complications associated with abortion such that there isless than a five percent probability (P < .05) that such statistical associationis due to chance. Such information on risk factors shall have been publishedin any peer-reviewed journals indexed by the United States National Libraryof Medicine's search services (PubMed or MEDLINE) or in any journal includedin the Thomson Reuters Scientific Master Journal List not less than twelvemonths prior to the day preabortion screening was provided;(12) Self-inducedabortion means any abortion or menstrual extraction attempted or completedby a pregnant woman on her own body;(13) Ultrasound means the use of ultrasonicwaves for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes, specifically to monitor an unbornchild;(14) Viability means thatstage of human development when the unborn child is potentially able to livemore than merely momentarily outside the womb of the mother by natural orartificial means; and(15) Womanmeans any female human being whether or not she has reached the age of majority. SourceLaws 1977, LB 38, § 41; Laws 1979, LB 316, § 1; Laws 1984, LB 695, § 1; Laws 1986, LB 663, § 1; Laws 1993, LB 110, § 1; Laws 1996, LB 1044, § 59; Laws 1997, LB 23, § 2; Laws 2000, LB 819, § 64; Laws 2007, LB296, § 27; Laws 2009, LB675, § 1; Laws 2010, LB594, § 3.Effective Date: July 15, 2010 Cross ReferencesHealth Care Facility Licensure Act, see section 71-401.Uniform Credentialing Act, see section 38-101. AnnotationsSections 28-326(8), 28-327, 28-333, and 28-343 (1979) regulating abortion were unconstitutional. Womens Services, P.C. v. Thone, 690 F.2d 667 (8th Cir. 1982).The portions of this statute which require that a woman seeking an abortion indicate in writing that she has been advised of possible alternatives to abortion and of the abortion procedures to be used, does not unduly burden either the woman's decisionmaking process or her obtaining an abortion and, in view of the state's interest in having the information conveyed, the sections are constitutional. Womens Services, P.C. v. Thone, 483 F.Supp. 1022 (D. Neb. 1979).This section, as far as it requires a woman seeking an abortion to indicate that she has been advised of the reasonably possible medical and mental consequences resulting from an abortion, pregnancy, and childbirth, gives a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice as to the subject matter of the statute and is not void for vagueness. Womens Services, P.C. v. Thone, 483 F.Supp. 1022 (D. Neb. 1979).