New Hampshire § 329-44 - Section 329:44 Prohibition.

§ 329-44. Section 329:44 Prohibition.

I. Except in the case of a medical emergency as specifically defined in paragraph III, no abortion shall be performed, induced, or attempted by any health care provider unless a health care provider has first made a determination of the probable gestational age of the fetus. In making such a determination, the health care provider shall make such inquiries of the pregnant woman and perform or cause to be performed all such medical examinations, imaging studies, and tests as a reasonably prudent health care provider in the community, knowledgeable about the medical facts and conditions of both the woman and the fetus involved, would consider necessary to perform and consider in making an accurate diagnosis with respect to gestational age, provided, however, that the health care provider shall conduct an obstetric ultrasound examination of the patient for the purpose of making the determination. This paragraph shall be construed to require the performance of an ultrasound only if the provider either knows that the fetus has a gestational age of at least 24 weeks or is conscious of a substantial risk that the fetus has a gestational age of at least 24 weeks. II. Except in the case of fetal abnormalities incompatible with life, or a medical emergency as specifically defined in paragraph III, no health care provider shall knowingly perform, induce, or attempt to perform an abortion upon a pregnant woman when the probable gestational age of her fetus has been determined to be at least 24 weeks or in the absence of a determination by a health care provider pursuant to paragraph I as to the fetus' probable gestational age. III. For the purposes of this subdivision only, "medical emergency" means a condition in which an abortion is necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant woman whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, or when continuation of the pregnancy will create a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function, as defined in RSA 329:43, V, of the pregnant woman.