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2005 Vermont Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (2005)

handle is hein.sag/sagvt0045 and id is 1 raw text is: Formal Opinion #2005-1 March 14, 2005 Rep. Duncan Frey Kilmartin State House Montpelier, VT 05633 Re: Applicability of 13 V.S.A. § 101 to abortions performed by persons other than licensed physicians Dear Representative Kilmartin: You have asked for an opinion regarding the application of 13 V.S.A. § 101 to abortions performed by persons other than licensed physicians and specifically asked for responses to certain hypothetical situations involving a variety of medical practitioners. Upon review of the issue, I conclude that section 101 does not apply to abortions performed by licensed physicians and osteopaths. Nor does it apply to abortions performed by physician's assistants or advanced practice nurses, if the procedure falls within the practitioner's approved scope of practice. I address your questions in more detail below by examining the interaction of section 101 with Vermont's regulation of health care providers. To begin with, section 101, which regulates abortion, must be construed in light of federal and state constitutional requirements. The statute, originally enacted in the nineteenth century, imposes criminal penalties on a person who willfully administers, advises or causes to be administered anything to a woman pregnant, or employs or causes to be employed any means with intent to procure the miscarriage of such woman, or assists or counsels therein, unless the same is necessary to preserve her life. As you note in your letter, the Vermont Supreme Court in 1972 held that this statute could not be applied to abortions performed by medical practitioners, because to do so would deny a woman medical aid except 1

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