What’s in Kentucky’s new abortion law? Breaking down four key points to know
The far-reaching abortion bill Republican members of the General Assembly passed into law late Wednesday over a veto from the governor has an immediate impact on women seeking abortions in Kentucky.
The Republican-led General Assembly voted Wednesday to override Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of House Bill 3, an anti-abortion omnibus bill that ends the mailing of abortion pills in Kentucky, raises the standards for minors wanting an abortion and creates a broad abortion monitoring system that bill opponents say is impossible to comply with.
But until the new system is put into place, Kentucky’s two abortion providers in Louisville — Planned Parenthood and EMW Women’s Surgical Center — have been forced to stop administering the medical procedure, representatives with Planned Parenthood Alliance of Kentucky and Indiana said Thursday. Patients who were scheduled to receive an abortion after Wednesday are instead being directed to clinics in nearby states.
Because the new law effectively halts abortion access, attorneys for Planned Parenthood Alliance and the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky filed two lawsuits Thursday morning asking a federal judge to block it from taking effect.
Once the system needed to fulfill the requirements under the new law is put in place, here’s how the law will affect Kentuckians considering an abortion:
No abortions will be allowed after 15 weeks of pregnancy
While this is unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade — which enshrined access to abortion up to the point when a fetus is viable outside the womb, typically around 23 weeks — it’s a strategic move by Kentucky Republicans to position the state to withstand a future court challenge, should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn the 1973 landmark case this summer.
Exceptions to the 15-week rule under the new law include if a pregnant woman faces a risk of death or “substantial and irreversible impairment” without the abortion. But the law does not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest.
Abortion pills can no longer be sent by mail in Kentucky
Even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided to permanently expand access to mifepristone and misoprostol by mail in December, Kentucky followed in the footsteps of other states like Texas, Tennessee, Ohio and Louisiana in moving to outlaw the practice on Wednesday.
To get a medical abortion in Kentucky, an in-person exam is now required before the pills can be dispensed, and a patient must return for a second in-person exam seven to 14 days after the abortion.
The patient also must sign an extensive “acknowledgment of risks and consent statement,” which declares that the two-drug regimen “will result in the death of the unborn child” and that medical professionals are available to “reverse the effects of a drug-induced abortion.”
Personal information of patients who receive abortions and physicians who administer them will be made public
The full names and addresses of physicians who refer patients for an abortion, administer an abortion, as well as pharmacists who dispense abortion pills must be reported to Kentucky’s Office of Vital Statistics, which is a publicly searchable database. Even though bill writers say the report “shall not include information which will identify the pregnant patient,” opponents say it’s still a risk.
Currently, the race, ethnicity, age, state of residence, marital status, and education level of a woman who gets an abortion are publicly logged in Kentucky.
Under the new bill, her age, city, county and state of residence, age, marital status, list of pre-existing medical conditions, total number of and dates of all previous live births and abortions, whether she has been tested for sexually transmitted diseases, the reason for the abortion, “probable gestational and post-fertilization ages of the unborn child,” and the approximate age of the father must all be reported.
Minors who are seeking abortions and don’t feel safe asking for their parents’ permission must give a judge “clear and convincing evidence” they are emotionally mature enough to get the procedure.
Kentucky previously allowed judicial bypass as an alternative for teens who wanted an abortion but didn’t feel safe asking their parents for permission. But the new law raises the standard for when judicial bypass can be granted.
Under the new law, a minor needs one legal guardian’s permission to get an abortion. In lieu of a parent or guardian’s permission, the minor can petition any circuit or district court judge to grant that permission, a process called judicial bypass. The court will then hold a hearing on the merits of the request. That process involves a judge considering the “age, intellect, maturity, and credibility and demeanor as a witness” of the minor, as well as her “ability to assess both the current and future life-impacting consequences of and alternatives to the abortion; ability to understand and explain the medical risks of the abortion and to apply that understanding to (your) decision.”
The minor will also be judged on whether anyone is influencing her to have an abortion. Based on these standards, a judge must find “clear and convincing evidence” that the minor is mature enough before granting permission for an abortion. If this threshold is not met, the request will be denied.
A judge cannot consider the financial best interest of a teenage petitioner when deciding whether to grant her petition.
Victims of rape at the hands of a parent or guardian are not required to get their abuser’s permission for an abortion, but they do need another parent’s or a judge’s.
If the minor opts for judicial bypass, a judge must find a “preponderance of evidence” that she is a victim of child abuse or sexual abuse in order to grant the petition. That burden of proof means, based on the evidence presented in the petition, the minor has to show that it’s more likely than not she’s a survivor of abuse.
This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
