Such extreme medical intervention prevents nature from aborting what is probably not a viable fetus.
The hospital, concerned about the legal consequences of not trying to save a potentially viable fetus, had sought the judicial ruling.
"What if a doctor misjudges and performs an abortion on a viable fetus?"
There are no abortions anywhere on healthy viable fetuses - third trimester.
Like many states, Kansas has long placed limits on late-term abortions of viable fetuses.
But we had to do something, and under the common law of this state, a viable fetus has the same legal rights as a baby.
A Missouri law that was not at issue in the case forbids the abortion of a viable fetus.
Other translocations occur but do not lead to a viable fetus.
In South Carolina's system of criminal justice a viable fetus is considered a person.
The majority opinion said that a viable fetus was a person, unambiguously, under the plain meaning of the child abuse law.