§ 51.2. Definitions.
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
Abortion—The termination of human pregnancy with an intention other than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus.
Act—The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (43 P. S. § § 951—963).
Commission—The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.
Moral, religious, or professional grounds—The deeply held beliefs, ethical rules and standards of conduct and practice of a person which impose a duty of conscience concerning the performance of or participation in abortion or sterilization procedures. Professional grounds include judgments of a medical nature regarding the performance of or participation in abortion or sterilization procedures.
Public hospital or public health care facility—A hospital or health care facility whose funding, financing, organization, administration, operations, policies or location have imbued it with State action, including but not limited to the following:(i) Nonproprietary municipal and county hospitals and health care facilities that are community controlled, for example, Philadelphia General Hospital.
(ii) Hospitals and health care facilities controlled by the State related universities of the Commonwealth—Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State University.
(iii) Medical facilities controlled by any Commonwealth-owned institution of higher learning that perform gynecological surgery.
(iv) State General Hospitals that are regulated by sections 321—323 of the act of June 13, 1967 (P. L. 31, No. 21) (62 P. S. § § 321—323). Absent the existence of the indicia of State action, denominational hospitals and health care facilities will be deemed to be nonpublic. Neither will an otherwise private hospital or health care facility be deemed to be public merely through the receipt of Federal funds under either the Hill-Burton Act (42 U.S.C.A. § 291 et seq.) or Title XVIII or Title XIX of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C.A. § § 1395 et seq. and 1396 et seq. ). Receipt of such funds, however, along with other indicia of state action may establish that such facility is a public hospital or public health care facility. The definitions of a ‘‘public hospital or public health care facility,’’ and of a ‘‘place of public accommodation, resort or amusement,’’ contained in section 4(1) of the act (43 P. S. § 954(1)), are independent of and have no effect upon each other.
Separate clinic of a health care facility—Any area of a hospital or health care facility designated or made available by the governing or administrative body of such facility for the performance of abortion, sterilization, or related procedures.
Stated ethical policy—A written statement, declaration, or resolution with respect to abortion or sterilization based upon moral judgments or standards of conduct and practice to be followed in the provision of health care services by a hospital or other health care facility.
Sterilization—The interruption and termination of the reproductive capabilities of a person with the intention of making that person incapable of the reproduction of human life.
Cross References This section cited in 28 Pa. Code § 101.164 (relating to civil rights compliance records).
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