Ky is poised to cut access to safe and legal abortion. The consequences will be dire.

Our country, and especially the commonwealth, is at a critical point when it comes to abortion access and reproductive healthcare. The attacks by Kentucky’s General Assembly have been ongoing for more than five years, and now the U.S. Supreme Court appears set to follow suit.

Here, the state legislature never wastes a moment to attack our rights at every turn. This year, we have a de facto ballot initiative that, if approved by you the voters in November, would permanently amend our state constitution and add another brick on the road toward banning legal and safe abortion.

Kentucky already has a trigger law that outright bans Roe v. Wade if it is ever overturned. We could see that before summer, and that would mean, in just two days, we would see our federal and state constitutional rights eroded before our very eyes.

This is despite the fact that 65 percent of Kentuckians – 65 percent! – believe it is important that people in our state have access to all of the reproductive health care options available, including abortion. We face the very real threat of Kentuckians and our health care providers being arrested and sent to jail. We’ve been ringing the alarm, and now the emergency is here.

Kentucky already has some of the most extreme abortion restrictions in the country. When abortion access is restricted or inaccessible, people – particularly Black, Indigenous, Latinx, other people of color and those with disabilities – suffer the consequences.

Passing this constitutional amendment and overturning Roe v. Wade could place Kentuckians’ health and lives in jeopardy, leading to worse health outcomes for pregnant people, children, and families across the state – let alone Black women, who are three to four times more likely to die during childbirth than white women. Our state and federal constitutions should continue to protect our right to obtain or reject medical treatment without government interference.

It is this kind of willful ignorance that is harming the health of people across our commonwealth and across the country.

We are here for the women, including Black women, transgender women and immigrant women, who are sick of men trying to exert power, domination, and control over our bodies.

We believe in the power of everyone across our Commonwealth to reject and resist political agendas that are designed to keep us in our place. We are not too far removed from a time in our history when some women were expected to be barefoot and pregnant – not state representatives.

Our system of government is designed to make us think that we should feel hopeless and powerless.

We are hopeful and powerful and we are clear that abortion is healthcare and healthcare is a human right. It’s time for all of us to step up and protect abortion access in Kentucky.

State Rep. Attica Scott, a Democrat from Louisville is running for Congress. This piece was also signed by state Reps. Mary Lou Marzian, Pamela Stevenson, Kelly Flood, Lisa Willner and Nima Kulkarni.

This story was originally published January 21, 2022 at 9:52 AM.