Tex. Health & Safety Code § 170.002 · Chapter 170. PROHIBITED ACTS REGARDING ABORTION
PROHIBITED ACTS; EXEMPTION.
Text — Current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025
(a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), a person may not intentionally or knowingly perform an abortion on a woman who is pregnant with a viable unborn child during the third trimester of the pregnancy.
(b) Subsection (a) does not prohibit a person from performing an abortion if at the time of the abortion the person is a physician and concludes in good faith according to the physician's best medical judgment that:
(1) the fetus is not a viable fetus and the pregnancy is not in the third trimester;
(2) the abortion is necessary to prevent the death or a substantial risk of serious impairment to the physical or mental health of the woman; or
(3) the fetus has a severe and irreversible abnormality, identified by reliable diagnostic procedures.
(c) A physician who performs an abortion that, according to the physician's best medical judgment at the time of the abortion, is to abort a viable unborn child during the third trimester of the pregnancy shall certify in writing to the commission, on a form prescribed by the commission, the medical indications supporting the physician's judgment that the abortion was authorized by Subsection (b)(2) or (3). If the physician certifies the abortion was authorized by Subsection (b)(3), the physician shall certify in writing on the form the fetal abnormality identified by the physician. The certification must be made not later than the 30th day after the date the abortion was performed.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 388, Sec. 5, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.
Amended by:
Acts 2017, 85th Leg., 1st C.S., Ch. 9 (H.B. 215), Sec. 1, eff. November 14, 2017.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025
- Official file
- https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/HS/htm/HS.170.htm
- Text hash
- sha256 5bea24c095f83935ce445fbc1a6f6a08c39dfa161e6d512d87de4ad3fc429b30
- Composed by
- compose_tx.py 2026-10-05: the Legislative Council's chapter files read in document order; verify_tx.py's independent reading (lxml DOM walk) agrees character for character
Cited by 1 provision
Provisions in this library whose text cites Tex. Health & Safety Code § 170.002. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.