{"data":{"id":"us-ky/krs-311.720","jurisdiction":"us-ky","citation":"KRS 311.720","heading":"Definitions for KRS 311.710 to 311.820 and other laws.","body":"As used in KRS 311.710 to 311.820, and laws of the Commonwealth unless the context\notherwise requires:\n(1) (a) \"Abortion\" means the performance of any act with the intent to terminate the\nclinically diagnosable pregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant wit h\nknowledge that the termination by those means will, with reasonable\nlikelihood, cause the death of the unborn child by one (1) or more of the\nfollowing means:\n1. Administering, prescribing, or providing any abortion -inducing drug as\ndefined in KRS 311.77 31, potion, medicine, or any other substance or\ndevice to a pregnant female; or\n2. Using an instrument or external force on a pregnant female.\n(b) \"Abortion\" does not mean those actions that require separating the pregnant\nwoman from her unborn child when performed by a licensed physician as\nprovided in KRS 311.723;\n(2) \"Accepted medical procedures\" means procedures of the type performed in the\nmanner and in a facility with equipment sufficient to meet the standards of medical\ncare which physicians engaged in the same or similar lines of work, would\nordinarily exercise and devote to the benefit of their patients;\n(3) \"Cabinet\" means the Cabinet for Health and Family Services of the Commonwealth\nof Kentucky;\n(4) \"Consent,\" as used in KRS 311.710 to 311.820 with reference to those who must\ngive their consent, means an informed consent expressed by a written agreement to\nsubmit to an abortion on a written form of consent to be promulgated by the\nsecretary for health and family services;\n(5) \"Family planning services\" means educational, medical, and social services and\nactivities that enable individuals to determine the num ber and spacing of their\nchildren and to select the means by which this may be achieved;\n(6) \"Fetus\" means a human being from fertilization until birth;\n(7) \"Hospital\" means those institutions licensed in the Commonwealth of Kentucky\npursuant to the provisions of KRS Chapter 216;\n(8) \"Human being\" means any member of the species homo sapiens from fertilization\nuntil death;\n(9) \"Medical emergency\" means any condition which, on the basis of the physician's\nreasonable medical judgment, so complicates the medic al condition of a pregnant\nfemale as to necessitate the immediate abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death\nor for which a delay will create serious risk of substantial and irreversible\nimpairment of a major bodily function;\n(10) \"Medical necessity\" mea ns a medical condition of a pregnant woman that, in the\nreasonable medical judgment of the physician who is attending the woman, so\ncomplicates the pregnancy that it necessitates the immediate performance or\ninducement of an abortion;\n(11) \"Partial-birth a bortion\" means an abortion in which the physician performing the\nabortion partially vaginally delivers a living fetus before killing the fetus and\ncompleting the delivery;\n(12) \"Perinatal care\" means the health care provided to both the mother and child,\nincluding prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum care, with a focus on optimizing\noutcomes and addressing potential complications;\n(13) \"Physician\" means any person licensed to practice medicine in the Commonwealth\nor osteopathy pursuant to this chapter;\n(14) \"Probable gestational age of the embryo or fetus\" means the gestational age that, in\nthe judgment of a physician, is, with reasonable probability, the gestational age of\nthe embryo or fetus at the time that the abortion is planned to be performed;\n(15) \"Public agency\" means the Commonwealth of Kentucky; any agency, department,\nentity, or instrumentality thereof; any city, county, agency, department, entity, or\ninstrumentality thereof; or any other political subdivision of the Commonwealth,\nagency, department, entity, or instrumentality thereof;\n(16) \"Reasonable medical judgment\" means the range of conclusions or\nrecommendations that licensed medical practitioners with similarly sufficient\ntraining and experience may communicate to a patient based upon curr ent available\nmedical evidence;\n(17) \"Unborn child\" has the same meaning as \"unborn human being\" in KRS 311.772;\n(18) \"Vaginally delivers a living fetus before killing the fetus\" means deliberately and\nintentionally delivers into the vagina a living fetus,  or a substantial portion thereof,\nfor the purpose of performing a procedure the physician knows will kill the fetus,\nand kills the fetus; and\n(19) \"Viability\" means that stage of human development when the life of the unborn\nchild may be continued by natu ral or life -supportive systems outside the womb of\nthe mother.","path":["KRS Chapter 311"],"source_url":"https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=56018","current_through":"Includes enactments through the 2026 Regular Session","vintage":"09/05/2026","retrieved_at":"2026-09-05T20:58:06Z","sha256":"30c94212df47bbaf00ec4970bbd2ad139d2d5140542222b8ecbf91070a3b00d0","source_id":"us-ky","stale":false,"prev":"us-ky/krs-311.715","next":"us-ky/krs-311.723"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}