---
title: O.C.G.A. § 31-9B-1. Definitions.
collection: code
id: 31-9B-1
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 31-9B-1 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-9B-1
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-9B-1.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-9B-1/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t31-(v23)-2025-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=da7ded69_0#page=631
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia
heading_path: HEALTH / PHYSICIAN’S OBLIGATION IN PERFORMANCE OF ABORTIONS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 31-9B-1. Definitions.

As used in this chapter, the term:

(1) “Abortion” has the meaning provided by Code Section 31-9A-2.

(2) “Medical emergency” has the meaning provided by Code Section 31-9A-2.

(3) “Medically futile” means that, in reasonable medical judgment, the unborn child has a profound and irremediable congenital or chromosomal anomaly that is incompatible with sustaining life after birth.

(4) “Physician” has the meaning provided by Code Section 31-9A-2.

(5) “Probable gestational age of the unborn child” means what will, in reasonable medical judgment and with reasonable probability, be the postfertilization age of the unborn child at the time the abortion is planned to be performed or induced, as dated from the time of fertilization of the human ovum.

(6) “Reasonable medical judgment” means a medical judgment that would be made by a reasonably prudent physician, knowledgeable about the case and the treatment possibilities with respect to the medical conditions involved.

(7) “Unborn child” has the meaning provided by Code Section 31-9A-2.

## History

Code 1981, § 31-9B-1, enacted by Ga. L. 2012, p. 575, § 3/HB 954.

## Code Commission Notes

Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2012, the subsection (a) designation was removed as there was not a subsection (b).