Alaska § 18.16.010 - Abortions.

§ 18.16.010. Abortions.

 (a) An abortion may not be performed in this state unless        (1) the abortion is performed by a physician licensed by the State Medical Board under AS 08.64.200 ;

 (2) the abortion is performed in a hospital or other facility approved for the purpose by the Department of Health or a hospital operated by the federal government or an agency of the federal government;

 (3) before an abortion is knowingly performed or induced on a pregnant, unmarried, unemancipated woman under 18 years of age, notice or consent have been given as required under AS 18.16.020 or a court has authorized the minor to proceed with the abortion without parental involvement under AS 18.16.030 and the minor consents; for purposes of enforcing this paragraph, there is a rebuttable presumption that a woman who is unmarried and under 18 years of age is unemancipated;

 (4) the woman is domiciled or physically present in the state for 30 days before the abortion; and

 (5) the applicable requirements of AS 18.16.060 have been satisfied.

 (b) Nothing in this section requires a hospital or person to participate in an abortion, nor is a hospital or person liable for refusing to participate in an abortion under this section.

 (c) A person who knowingly violates a provision of this section, upon conviction, is punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000, or by imprisonment for not more than five years, or by both.

 (d) [Repealed, § 6 ch 14 SLA 1997.]  (e) A person who performs or induces an abortion in violation of (a)(3) of this section is civilly liable to the pregnant minor and the minor's parents, guardian, or custodian for compensatory and punitive damages.

 (f) It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution or claim for a violation of (a)(3) of this section that the pregnant minor provided the person who performed or induced the abortion with false, misleading, or incorrect information about the minor's age, marital status, or emancipation, and the person who performed or induced the abortion did not otherwise have reasonable cause to believe that the pregnant minor was under 17 years of age, unmarried, or unemancipated.

 (g) It is a defense to a prosecution or claim for violation of (a)(3) of this section that, in the clinical judgment of the physician or surgeon, compliance with the requirements of (a)(3) of this section was not possible because, in the clinical judgment of the physician or surgeon, an immediate threat of serious risk to the life or physical health of the pregnant minor from the continuation of the pregnancy created a medical emergency necessitating the immediate performance or inducement of an abortion. In this subsection,        (1) “clinical judgment” means a physician's or surgeon's subjective professional medical judgment exercised in good faith;

 (2) “defense” has the meaning given in AS 11.81.900 (b);

 (3) “medical emergency” means a condition that, on the basis of the physician's or surgeon's good faith clinical judgment, so complicates the medical condition of a pregnant minor that             (A) an immediate abortion of the minor's pregnancy is necessary to avert the minor's death; or

 (B) a delay in providing an abortion will create serious risk of medical instability caused by a substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant minor.

 (h) A physician or other health care provider is liable for failure to obtain the informed consent of a person as required under AS 18.16.060 if the claimant establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that the provider has failed to inform the person of the common risks and reasonable alternatives to the proposed abortion procedure and that, but for that failure, the person would not have consented to the abortion procedure.

 (i) It is a defense to any action for the alleged failure to obtain the informed consent of a person under (h) of this section that        (1) the risk not disclosed is too commonly known or is too remote to require disclosure; or

 (2) the person who is the subject of the alleged failure to obtain the informed consent stated to the physician or other health care provider that the person would or would not undergo the abortion procedure regardless of the risk involved or that the person did not want to be informed of the matters to which the person would be entitled to be informed.

 (j) In an action under (h) of this section, there is a rebuttable presumption that an abortion was performed with the pregnant woman's informed consent if the person who performed the abortion submits into evidence a copy of the woman's written certification required under AS 18.16.060 (b).