Definitions

(For effective date, see note.) Requirement to determine presence of detectable human heartbeat of unborn child. Editor’s notes. — Ga. L. 2012, p. 575, § 1/HB 954, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: ‘‘The General Assembly makes the following findings: ‘‘(1) At least by 20 weeks after fertilization there is substantial evidence that an unborn child has the physical structures necessary to experience pain; ‘‘(2) There is substantial evidence that, by 20 weeks after fertilization, unborn children seek to evade certain stimuli in a manner which in an infant or an adult would be interpreted as a response to pain; ‘‘(3) Anesthesia is routinely administered to unborn children who have developed 20 weeks or more past fertilization who undergo prenatal surgery; ‘‘(4) Even before 20 weeks after fertilization, unborn children have been observed Sec. 31-9B-3. (For effective date, see note.) Required reporting of physicians and departments; confidentiality; failure to comply. to exhibit hormonal stress responses to painful stimuli. Such responses were reduced when pain medication was administered directly to such unborn children; ‘‘(4.1) Probable gestational age is an estimate made to assume the closest time to which the fertilization of a human ovum occurred and does not purport to be an exact diagnosis of when such fertilization occurred; and ‘‘(5) It is the purpose of the State of Georgia to assert a compelling state interest in protecting the lives of unborn children from the stage at which substantial medical evidence indicates that they are capable of feeling pain.’’