KY Senate advances bill banning abortion after 15 weeks
A bill seeking to ban abortions in Kentucky after 15 weeks won unanimous approval from Senate Republicans Wednesday afternoon.
Under Senate Bill 321, “no person shall intentionally perform or induce or intentionally attempt to perform an abortion on a pregnant woman when the probable gestational age of the unborn child is 15 weeks or greater.”
Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, the bill’s lead sponsor, told senators it was closely modeled after the Mississippi case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In its argument to keep a 15-week ban on abortions, Mississippi has also asked the high court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case that prohibits states from banning abortion before a fetus is viable, typically around 23 weeks.
If Roe is jettisoned and the Supreme Court upholds Mississippi’s 15 week ban, Wise told senators that passing this bill will ensure Kentucky has a “pro-life law in place that would not be subject to a good-faith legal challenge.”
There was very little discussion before the Senate passed it 31-6, with all Democrats except Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, voting no. It now heads to the House.
Before casting her yes vote, Sen. Adrienne Southworth, R-Lawrenceburg, said the bill helps protect the most basic right under the Constitution. “The right to life is not something that is subject to personal opinion, it’s not subject to government intrusion, and it’s not subject to the medical profession,” she said. “It is inherent by our creator, and that’s why I support this bill.”
But Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, questioned why Kentucky needed to jump the gun. “We don’t know what the Supreme Court will decide. If we pass this legislation, and the [court] decides to affirm Roe, this bill will be unconstitutional,” he said. “I think it would be better to see what the Supreme Court does.”
Exceptions to the 15-week ban under Wise’s bill include if the life of the pregnant person is at stake, or if an abortion is necessary “to avoid a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman,” according to the bill language.
The bill does not include exceptions for rape or incest, and states, “no abortion shall be necessary if it based on a claim or diagnosis that the pregnant woman will engage in conduct that would result in her death . . . or if it is based on any reason related to her mental health.”
Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates of Kentucky has questioned why lawmakers are pushing this bill, a duplicate of a bill Republicans passed into law in 2018 that also bans abortions after 15 weeks. It has yet to go into effect because of court challenges. Kentucky has previously passed laws to make abortion illegal after six and 14 weeks, but they, too, are snarled in legal challenges and have yet to take effect.
“Major medical providers like the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics oppose this type of 15-week abortion ban, because they put safe and timely abortion care out of reach from patients, and put patients’ health and well-being at risk,’” Planned Parenthood said in a statement, calling the bill “cruel and dangerous.”
Wise’s bill also gives the state Attorney General the authority to “bring an action in law or equity to enforce” provisions of the bill, and it redefines certain phases of fetal development formally recognized by the state, beginning lowering the “gestational age” that a fetus becomes a “pain-capable unborn child” from 20 weeks down to 15.
Senate Bill 321 is one of two abortion bills Republicans are throwing their weight behind this session. House Bill 3 from Rep. Nancy Tate, R-Brandenburg, is a sweepingly restrictive omnibus bill that opponents say will effectively end access to the procedure in Kentucky.
Tate’s bill, which has already advanced through the House, would ban the mailing of abortion pills, even after a telehealth consultation with a licensed doctor. It would also task the Kentucky Board of Pharmacy with creating a new and extensive abortion pill certification, monitoring and reporting program. But Board leadership told lawmakers last month that without additional funding (the bill lacks a fiscal note), there’s a dearth of staff and resources to fulfill what House Bill 3 demands.
Opponents have blasted bill sponsors for what they say is an inflammatory and politicized effort to unilaterally revoke access to an otherwise safe medical procedure. Last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dr. Brittany Myers, a resident OB-GYN in Louisville, said Senate Bill 321 was “oozing with non-medical terminology and misinformation regarding the safety and truth of procedures we can treat patients with.”
Wise’s bill would formalize that Kentucky’s elected state leaders find elective abortions performed after 15 weeks to be a “dangerous” and “barbaric practice,” and one that that carries “significant physical and psychological risks to the maternal patient” and is “demeaning to the medical profession.”
Neither Wise nor Tate included testimony from Kentucky physicians when presenting their bills to lawmakers in committee.
This story was originally published March 16, 2022 at 4:44 PM.
