Abortion bills die in House Health and Welfare Committee

Four bills that would have made it more difficult to have an abortion in Kentucky won't make it past the House Health and Welfare Committee.

House Bill 390 and House Bill 215 would have prohibited a woman from having abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy except in emergency cases; House Bill 374 would have required that a woman wanting an abortion meet with a doctor in person; and House Bill 243 "would have stopped a minor from another state from petitioning a court to receive an abortion if she does not have the permission of a parent," the Lexington Herald Leader's Beth Musgrave reports.

Republican Rep. David Floyd of Bardstown, left, sponsored three of the bills, but did not attend the meeting. "He had three bills, and he didn't have the guts to show up to defend his bills," committee chairman Tom Burch, D-Louisville.

Floyd said the bills should be considered by the Judiciary Committee, not the Health and Welfare, committee. "They devise the committee specifically to kill any pro-life bill," Floyd said of the health committee. The panel includes 10 Democrats and six Republicans. They voted along party lines. (Read more)