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3899
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MARVIN MANDEL, Governor
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section.
Article 43, Section 137 sets out the conditions
under which pregnancy may be terminated. It provides
that an abortion must be performed by a physician
licensed by the State in an accredited and licensed
hospital, and can only be performed after a determination
that one or more of the following conditions exist:
1. Continuation of the pregnancy is likely
to result in the death of the mother or
there is substantial risk that the pregnancy
would gravely impair the mental or physical
health of the mother;
2. There is substantial risk that the child
will be born with grave and permanent
physical deformities or mental retardation;
3. That the pregnancy resulted from a rape.
Two additional conditions in Subsection (b) that
must be met before a pregnancy can re terminated are:
1. it must take place before twenty—six
weeks of gestation have passed; and
2. Authorization be given by the hospital
abortion review authority.
In Doe, supra., the Supreme Court reviewed a Georgia
abortion statute which contained conditions similar to
Article 43, Section 137(a). The Supreme Court affirmed
the judgment of the District Court holding invalid
certain portions of that statute which limited legal
abortions to circumstances when: (1) A continuation of
the pregnancy would endanger the life of the pregnant
woman or would seriously and permanently injure her
health; (2) The fetus would very likely be born with a
permanent and irremediable mental or physical defect; or
(3) The pregnancy resulted from rape. The situations
covered by the Georgia statute are exactly the same as
situations covered in Article 43, Section 137(a) (1), (2),
(3) and (4). We, therefore, conclude that Article 43,
Section 137 (a) was rendered unconstitutional by the
decision in "Doe to the extent that it limits termination
of pregnancy to situations where one or more of the
conditions are present.
The requirement of Article 43, Section 137 that the
termination of pregnancy be performed in a hospital
accredited by the JCAH and licensed by the State was
addressed by Vuitch and Ingel, supra., in addition to
Doe, supra. In Doe, the Supreme Court felt that the
State had not adequately demonstrated that the full
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