A high-profile bill that would ban abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected has advanced in the General Assembly.
Sen. Matt Castlen, R-Owensboro, sponsor of the bill gave a pulsating example as he talked to the House Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee.
“We have our own identity through our fingerprints,” he said. “Place your fingers on your wrist, and you feel a heartbeat. It is undeniable that where there is a heartbeat, there is life.”
Dr. Jeannie Brammer, an OB/GYN, testified on behalf of the bill and said, from a medical standpoint, detection of a heartbeat is when they consider the pregnancy safer.
“Twenty-five percent of pregnancies may end in a miscarriage,” she told the panel, “but once we see that heartbeat, we know that risk has dropped down to three to five percent. So, we know that there is a 95 percent or better chance that the baby, at six weeks or so, is going to turn into a new-born child in another seven and a half months.”
Dr. Kevin Pettis, a family physician, said one question not often answered is, “What is the unborn? The unborn is a human being, at the moment of conception.”
Opponents of the bill included Kate Miller, advocacy director for the ACLU of Kentucky.
“We believe the bill is unconstitutional. Its passage will trigger an immediate challenge from our affiliates, and it will become another abortion-related bill in a long list of bills that the state is unsuccessfully litigating,” she said. “This bill tries to take something that is really complex, from our perspective; decisions about parenting, decisions about pregnancy, and make it very simple.”
Tamara Weeder with Planned Parenthood also spoke in opposition. “We are again fighting legislation that would strip Kentuckians of their right to access safe and legal healthcare, as early as six weeks into pregnancy. This is before most people know that they are pregnant.”
The bill passed the committee, 12-3, and now moves to the House floor, where, if approved, it would then advance to the Governor’s desk.
Republican lawmakers in Kentucky have pushed to restrict abortion since the GOP took total control of the legislature in 2017.
On Tuesday the state House passed a bill that would ban the procedure for women seeking to end their pregnancies because of the gender, race or disability of the fetus.
A bill to ban most abortions in the state if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized the procedure nationwide is also being considered by lawmakers.
The state is defending three abortion-related laws in federal court
By Tom Latek, Kentucky Today
