Democrats pass as late breaking ‘clarification' of Kentucky abortion law clears Senate
Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, was among Senate Democrats passing on a bill meant to provide Kentucky health care providers with more clarity regarding the state's laws on abortion. (LRC Public Information)
In response to what one Republican called 'a desperate need for clarity' in Kentucky's abortion law, the Senate has approved language detailing the ban's exception for 'life of the mother' and listing some situations when doctors may end complex pregnancies.
All Democrats in the Republican-controlled Senate passed on the vote, saying they hadn't had time to review the changes, which were first made public Wednesday, or to understand if the amendment would help or hurt pregnant women and medical providers.
Health care professionals in Kentucky and beyond have long said the state's abortion laws are too medically vague and inhibit their ability to properly treat miscarriages, hemorrhages and other emergencies.
Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, carried House Bill 90 on the Senate floor. Once a bill only to pave the way for freestanding birth centers in Kentucky, itl now carries the abortion clarification language.
HB 90 has now passed both chambers and only needs House concurrence with the amendment to be sent to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear for a signature or veto.
The clarification language was first added to a different bill Wednesday, but that bill has yet to clear a chamber.
'There is a desperate need for clarity on a lot of … medical issues that come up during the course of a pregnancy,' Raque Adams said. 'There is a lot of misinformation out there in the medical community, and doctors just need to be doctors. And so this language that's before us today adds some much needed clarity for the medical community.'
The clarification still instructs health care providers to 'make reasonable medical efforts under the circumstances to preserve both the life of the mother and the life of the unborn child.'
But it outlines that doctors can intervene to remove molar and ectopic pregnancies, manage miscarriages, treat sepsis and hemorrhage and more.
It also leaves the determination of an emergency to 'the physician's reasonable medical judgment.'
Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, said she would support anything that 'will save the lives of pregnant women in this state' but she felt the language was rushed through the process.
Chambers Armstrong said she hadn't received the bill substitute in time to understand it and consult with experts, slamming 'an intentional choice by the majority party in the way this legislation was moved to disenfranchise me and the people I represent on this very important issue.'
'I really hope that this bill does take a step forward in terms of allowing doctors to provide lifesaving care. I truly hope that that is what this legislation does. However, I don't know that,' she said.
In committees Wednesday, Dr. Jeffrey M. Goldberg, the legislative advocacy chair for the Kentucky chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), said the language isn't perfect and will need more work. But, he said, physicians already work under such ambiguity that something has to be done.
Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, said the effort at clarity is still 'full of words that have no meaning to a physician.'
'It's an excellent effort to fix a huge — huge — problem of our own making,' said Berg, who is also a doctor. 'But it can't be rushed. It needs to be right.'
Beshear in his weekly news conference said the Republican changes are not enough to restore access to abortion in Kentucky. He pointed out that Kentucky's abortion ban still would have no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. 'Even with this bill, it would be significantly less access than virtually every other state in the United States.'
He also said he has questions about whether the new language would clarify or confuse the legal picture for health care providers. 'We were told by those that that passed the trigger law originally that it provided an exception for the life of the mother, and now this bill is saying that it needs to be passed through law. So one question I'm going to have is: Is it more or less restrictive than the current understanding in the medical community that we have right now?'
McKenna Horsley contributed to this story.
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