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Miss. Code Ann. § 41-41-73

Partial-birth abortions prohibited; penalties for violations

Applied in 1 court decision — leading case Don Stenberg Attorney General of Nebraskas v. Leroy Carhart (2000)

Most recently applied in Don Stenberg Attorney General of Nebraskas v. Leroy Carhart (June 2000)

Laws, 1997, ch. 350, § 2, eff from and after July 1, 1997.

(1) Any physician who knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) or imprisoned in the State Penitentiary for not more than two (2) years, or both. This subsection shall not apply to a partial-birth abortion that is necessary to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury if no other medical procedure would suffice for that purpose.

(2) As used in this section, “partial-birth abortion” means an abortion in which the person performing the abortion partially vaginally delivers a living fetus before killing the fetus and completing the delivery.

(3) As used in this section, “physician” means a doctor of medicine or osteopathy legally authorized to practice medicine and surgery by the State of Mississippi. However, any individual who is not a physician but who nevertheless directly performs a partial-birth abortion shall be subject to the provisions of this section.

(4) The husband of a mother at the time she receives a partial-birth abortion procedure, and if the mother has not attained the age of eighteen (18) years at the time of the abortion, the mother’s parents may in a civil action obtain appropriate relief, unless the pregnancy resulted from the plaintiff’s criminal conduct or the plaintiff consented to the abortion.

(5) Such relief shall include: Money damages for all injuries, psychological and physical, occasioned by the violation of this section; and

(6) Statutory damages equal to three (3) times the cost of the partial-birth abortion.

(7) A woman upon whom a partial-birth abortion is performed may not be prosecuted under this section for a conspiracy to violate this section.

Current official text: Mississippi Code (LexisNexis). Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Mississippi statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.