FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - A bill aimed at banning abortions in Kentucky after 20 weeks of pregnancy surfaced as a quick priority Tuesday, the opening day of the Republican-run legislative session.
Republicans now in full charge of the General Assembly looked to flex their muscle on a social issue that bedeviled them in the past when they shared power with Democrats.
The abortion measure was introduced in the Senate, assigned to a committee and Senate leaders said it could get a vote in the chamber as soon as this week.
“There is, at this point in time, two viable beings involved in this decision,” Senate President Robert Stivers said of the bill. “One had a choice early on to make a decision to conceive or not conceive. But once conception starts, there becomes another life involved. And the legislature has its ability to control how that life may proceed.”
Republican Sen. Brandon Smith of Hazard, the bill’s sponsor, said it’s based on the assertion that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks.
“It’s just unacceptable in this day and age to be able to do that kind of harm and … abort a fetus that we know is experiencing pain,” he said.
Opponents to similar bills in other states have characterized that as scientifically unsound. The 20-week ban proposed in Kentucky would be similar to those in effect in at least 15 states.
New Kentucky House Speaker Jeff Hoover predicted the bill would win overwhelming support if it reaches the House. Republicans took control of the chamber Tuesday after nearly a century of rule by Democrats. It had been the last Southern legislative chamber held by Democrats.
Kentucky’s Republican governor, Matt Bevin, is an abortion opponent.
Smith said his bill would make exceptions to the 20-week abortion ban in cases of rape and incest and when the mother’s life is in danger. Doctors violating the ban would face fines and suspensions, but pregnant women would not be punished, he said.
Critics of the bill said it would intrude on women’s right to choose.
“Given the new dynamics (in the legislature), it is very possible that we will be passing perhaps unconstitutional restrictions to a woman’s right to choose, and interfering between a doctor and their patients,” said Democratic Rep. Joni Jenkins.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky also raised concerns.
“We don’t know the circumstances of every woman who’s made the decision to get an abortion; we aren’t in her shoes,” said ACLU official Kate Miller. “And we aren’t in the best position to make that sort of decision for someone else.”
In Virginia, Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe promised to veto similar legislation banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, saying such a “socially divisive” proposal hurts the state’s image.
In the Kentucky House, Republicans filed a bill Tuesday that would require women seeking abortions to first undergo an ultrasound, which opponents say is medically unnecessary. Similar measures passed the GOP-led Senate in prior years but died in the House when Democrats were in charge.
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