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Legislation aimed toward easing Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban by creating restricted exceptions for pregnancies attributable to rape or incest was launched Monday within the GOP-dominated House, as lawmakers wrangle with a problem on the forefront of final yr’s marketing campaign for governor.
Republican state Rep. Ken Fleming filed the measure on the final day that new House payments might be launched on this yr’s 60-day session. The bill’s prospects are unsure, with House Speaker David Osborne saying the chamber’s GOP supermajority has not mentioned any explicit abortion bill.
Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban has been in place because the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The state’s so-called set off legislation took impact, banning abortions besides when carried out to save the mom’s life or to stop a disabling damage. It doesn’t embrace exceptions for circumstances of rape or incest.
KENTUCKY HOUSE VOTES TO CHANGE CHILD LABOR LAWS, FOOD STAMP RECIPIENT REQUIREMENTS
Fleming’s proposal would change that by making abortions authorized in circumstances of rape and incest if accomplished no later than six weeks after the primary day of the lady’s final menstrual interval, in accordance to an announcement describing the bill. The measure additionally would enable an abortion to take away a lifeless fetus and in circumstances of a deadly fetal anomaly, that means the fetus would not survive after beginning.
“We all encounter difficult heart-wrenching decisions in life,” Fleming stated within the assertion. “As a father of two daughters, I have always supported them financially, emotionally, and especially spiritually. With them on my mind and in my heart, exceptions for life-saving measures for the mother and in cases involving rape or incest should be included in our state’s abortion law.”
Current exceptions to save the mom’s life or stop disabling accidents would stay below his bill.
The Kentucky State Capitol is seen in Frankfort, Ky., on Jan. 14, 2020. A bill aimed toward easing Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban by creating restricted exceptions for pregnancies attributable to rape or incest was launched on Feb. 26, 2024, the final day that new House payments might be launched this yr. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)
The measure additionally features a provision making a course of for physicians to doc the circumstances surrounding an abortion carried out below state legislation.
The last-minute bill submitting mirrors one other GOP lawmaker’s try final yr to chill out the state’s abortion ban. That measure, additionally filed on the final day for bill introductions within the House, made no headway because the abortion concern was ignored in 2023 by the legislature’s Republican supermajorities.
The concern rose to the forefront of Kentucky’s hotly contested governor’s race final yr. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, an abortion-rights supporter who received reelection to a second time period, hammered away at his Republican challenger’s assist of the state’s sweeping abortion ban.
Kentucky’s Supreme Court refused to strike down the ban final yr. The justices, nevertheless, dominated on slender authorized points however left unanswered the bigger constitutional questions on whether or not entry to abortion must be authorized within the Bluegrass State.
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In late 2023, a Kentucky lady sued to demand the suitable to an abortion, however her attorneys later withdrew the lawsuit after she realized her embryo not had cardiac exercise. In 2022, Kentucky voters rejected a poll measure aimed toward denying any constitutional protections for abortion.
Kentucky is one in all 14 states with a ban on abortions in any respect phases of being pregnant at the moment in impact.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the nationwide proper to abortion, bans of some type have kicked in in most Republican-controlled states. Two — Georgia and South Carolina — ban abortion as soon as cardiac exercise could be detected, round six weeks into being pregnant and earlier than ladies typically understand they’re pregnant. Utah and Wyoming have bans on abortion all through being pregnant, however enforcement has been paused by courts whereas they weigh whether or not the legal guidelines adjust to the state constitutions.
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