By Dave Andrusko
Kentucky moved one important step closer to joining other states that protect unborn babies from abortion after 15 weeks.
HB 3 –described as an “omnibus” bill—passed the Senate on a 29-0 vote. Seven of the eighth Democrats walked out of the chambers rather than cast a vote.
Previously passed in the House, multiple provisions were added in the Senate, including the 15 week prohibition. The proposed 15-week ban is modeled after Mississippi’s “Gestational Age Law” under review by the Supreme Court.
The House then ratified the changes, 74-19, and the bill was sent to pro-abortion Gov. Andy Beshear.
Republicans have majorities large enough to easily override a gubernatorial which they did in giving Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron the power to seek civil and criminal penalties for any violation of Kentucky’s abortion laws.
According to the Louisville Courier Journal’s Deborah Yetter, “Passage of HB 3 started in the Senate with a flurry of activity that included
Adding in Senate Bill 321, the 15-week ban on abortions sponsored by Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville. Wise said his bill mirrors a Mississippi law currently before the U.S. Supreme Court in a challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision establishing abortion as a constitutional right.”
There were other important provisions in HB3. “Much of the debate Tuesday revolved around the proposed regulation of dispensing of abortion pills, requiring women to be examined in person by a doctor before receiving the medication,” according to the Associated Press’s Bruce Schreiner.
This “will ban at-home, pill-by-mail, do-it-yourself abortions,” said Sen. Ralph Alvarado, a physician, who handled the bill in the Senate. State action took on even greater urgency when the FDA, under President Biden, permanently eliminated a long-standing requirement that women pick up the medication in person. “HB 3 bans shipment to patients of such medication by mail or other carrier, “Yetter reported.
And HB3 adds new restrictions on abortions for girls under 18. HB3 also requires that “fetal remains be cremated or interred,” Reuters reported.
Before casting her “yes” vote, state Senator Adrienne Southworth said “Babies have such unheard voices that some of us have to stand up.”
