State House sends the Senate an omnibus anti-abortion bill

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

After two hours of debate Wednesday, the state House passed an omnibus anti-abortion bill, dubbed "The Humanity in Healthcare Act" by its supporters and an intimidation tactic by its opponents. 

Rep. Nancy Tate presenting
SB3 on House floor. LRC photo.

House Bill 3 would strengthen parental-consent requirements, creates higher standards for judges to approve the abortion without parental consent, creates new restrictions for medication abortions, addresses the disposal of fetal remains and increases reporting requirements. 

The bill's main sponsor, Rep. Nancy Tate, R-Brandenburg, said it is not intended to eliminate abortions in Kentucky, asserting "We have already done that" in 2019 by passing a bill to ban abortion once a heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy. That measure has been suspended during a court challenge. 

"The intent of House Bill 3 is to ensure that while abortions are legal in Kentucky, we want them to be as safe as possible," she said.

The bill went to the Senate on a 77-20 vote.

The annual abortion report from the state Office of Vital Statistics says that in 2020, 4,104 abortions were recorded in Kentucky. Of those, 13 were performed on girls younger than 15 and 353 were on those 15-19. Most Kentucky abortions (2,421) were among women 20-29. Among other age groups; 779 among those 30-34; 399 among those 35-39; and 139 among those 40 or older.

Most abortions in Kentucky are now accomplished by medication that the Food and Drug Administration allows to be sent by mail. HB 3 would ban the mailing of such medication.

Tate said there have been 24 deaths and more than 3,000 serious injuries from taking these pills, but the Kaiser Family Foundation reports: "Medication abortion is a safe and highly effective method of pregnancy termination if the pills are administered at nine weeks’ ge­­station or less, the pregnancy is terminated successfully 99.6% of the time, with a 0.4% risk of major complications, and an associated mortality rate of less than 0.001 percent (0.00064%)."

Democrats stood one after another to question various provisions of the bill. A few of the Republicans who hold a supermajority in the House spoke in favor of it.

Rep. Josie Raymond said the bill was meant to "intimidate and erode" access to abortion in Kentucky.

"They continue to go against the wishes of the two-thirds of Kentuckians who support unfettered access to abortion," said Raymond, D-Louisville. "They work relentlessly to undermine the unruly and inevitable power of women by making it harder to get abortions. They erode, erode, erode our rights to try to wear us down and wear us out until we get too tired to fight."

Rep. Kelly Flood, who has been a parish minister for 10 years, said that the underlying premise of such bills is that "Women are not capable of moral decisions in their life. . . . We disagree. . . . I want you to know that the moral fiber of women can handle this." 

Flood, D-Lexington, added, "More and more and more governments and faith, people of faith like my faith, Unitarian Universalism, say, 'Yes, we understand that women are capable of moral decision making, including life and death, and that we will have your back to have a safe process to determine how you got pregnant. Was it a crime? Was it a violation by someone you love? Or was it a choice you made, and then something terrible happened where you got sick, and you couldn't carry the pregnancy to term?' Those are real reasons why abortion can be a compassionate act." 

Rep. Bill Wesley, R-Ravenna, said he was voting for HB 3 "on behalf of the child that has no voice," but Rep. Pamela Stevenson, D-Louisville, said a true pro-life agenda takes care of everybody from birth to death. 

"At what point do we get out of other people's bedrooms, other people's lives, other people's medical decisions and take care of the people that are here, the children that are in child care, foster care being abused, the children that go hungry every night, children that don't have parents, the children that want somebody to love them and can't be adopted," she said. "Why aren't we taking care of the people that are here?" 

Rep. Jeffery Donohue, D-Fairdale (Jefferson County), said he is an adoptive parent and doesn't personally support abortion, but it is not for him to make that decision for others.

"I do support the woman having a choice, or a young girl having a choice, with the doctor's input on it," he said, adding later, "This is not our task, it's not our responsibility." 

Rep. Jim DuPlessis, R-Elizabethtown, spoke in favor of the bills' additional parental-consent rules, saying he would want to know if his child was having sex, let alone planning to get an abortion. "Kids can't go get tattoo without our permission. Why? Why are we going to let them have an abortion without us knowing? It is the craziest thing I've ever heard." 

Rep. Nima Kulkarni, D-Louisville, said that while most young people talk to their parents before an abortion, those who do not typically don't because of fear of harm, including being kicked out. Others, she said, may live in homes with parents who are "abusive, absent, addicted or otherwise dysfunctional." She added, "Evidence shows that laws requiring parental consent do not increase the rate at which young people tell their parents about pregnancies or abortion care."

Several amendments filed by Democrats failed, including one for exemptions in cases of rape or incest and another to make a religious exemption for Jewish women. Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, read from a statement from the National Council of Jewish Women in support of her amendment. 

Rep. Danny Bentley, R-Russell, falsely claimed during the floor debate that "Jewish women only have one sex partner" and that one of the abortion medications is the same chemical used in Holocaust gas chambers, so "To say that the Jewish people approve of this drug now is wrong."

The American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Louisville and the National Council of Jewish Women's Louisville Section condemned Bentley's comments in a statement Wednesday night, the Courier Journal reports. They said he "went on a bizarre, anti-Semitic rant."

Bentley apologized for his remarks: "I meant absolutely no harm in my comments today and sincerely apologize for any they caused. Last week we received a heartbreakingly sad reminder that anti-Semitism still exists in our society and I apologize if my comments today caused similar pain or any doubt that I stand with the Jewish community against hatred."