§ 74.551.Application

A classification provision, and its effect is procedural rather than substantive.

A civil action brought against a physician or provider for a violation of a provision of Chapter 170, 170A, or 171, Health and Safety Code — subject to an exception provided by the chapter alleged to have been violated or other law — is a health care liability claim and is subject to the same requirements as any other health care liability claim.

Those Health and Safety Code chapters govern the performance of abortion in Texas. The section does not create, expand, or restrict any claim under them; it settles which procedural regime governs a civil action brought under them.

The consequence is that this chapter's machinery applies in full. The 60-day pre-suit notice and medical authorization; the 120-day expert report with mandatory dismissal and fees for failure; the two-year limitations period and ten-year repose; the damages caps; and the expert qualification requirements.

Classifying such an action as a health care liability claim therefore imposes substantial procedural obligations that would not otherwise attach.

The final sentence limits the section: it does not affect a health care liability claim based on any other ground than a violation of those chapters. An ordinary negligence claim against the same physician is governed by the chapter on its own terms, unaffected by this section.