The Road To Gilead Goes Through Kentucky, Con't

Kentucky Republicans in the General Assembly are putting together their major abortion restriction bill in anticipation of the Supreme Court gutting Roe v Wade later this year, with a raft of new restrictions that will make safe abortion all but impossible in the state.

 

A Republican lawmaker has filed a far-reaching bill that would impose more layers of regulation on abortion in Kentucky, including new restrictions on medication used to terminate an early pregnancy.

It also bans shipment of such medication by mail or other carrier, which is allowed in many states under a recent federal rule change lifting a requirement for an in-person medical visit.

And it puts the Kentucky Board of Pharmacy in charge of enforcing a lengthy list of rules around distribution of the medication, with fines reaching $5 million for pharmacies and others who violate a rule requiring they be certified.

Of the 4,104 abortions performed in Kentucky, about half were medication procedures, according to the state Annual Abortion Report for 2020, the most recent report available.

House Bill 3, filed Wednesday by Rep. Nancy Tate, R-Brandenburg, includes most of the provisions she outlined during a December hearing when she said she planned to file an "omnibus" abortion bill.

But Tate's goal isn't to eliminate abortion access in Kentucky, she said in a news release from the House GOP.

"This bill isn't about ending abortion," Tate said. "... Our goal is to ensure the procedure is the result of a fully informed, educated choice that takes into consideration the health and safety of both the unborn child and his or her mother."

But Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates of Kentucky immediately blasted HB 3 as a "dangerous attack on reproductive care" based on "junk science and misinformation that endangers the health of pregnant people."

 

Here's what the bill would do:

• It imposes new restrictions on medication abortions generally provided up to the 10th week of pregnancy, including rules for doctors and pharmacists. It requires an in-person visit with a physician, rather than telehealth, and also requires that a patient be counseled that the termination, which consists of taking medication several days apart, can be reversed, a medically unproven claim.
• It requires the state pharmacy board to create a new program to oversee the distribution of abortion drugs and oversee a new certification process for pharmacies, physicians, manufacturers and distributors who administer or provide the drugs.
• It also charges the pharmacy board with enforcing certification requirements with violations resulting in a fine of no less than $5 million for pharmacies, manufacturers and distributors and a fine of $250,000 for physicians. It also requires the board to create a complaint portal on its website which lists the names of all physicians certified to prescribe medication to induce abortions and pharmacies, manufacturers and distributors certified to supply it.
• It requires physicians who prescribe abortion drugs to maintain hospital admitting privileges at a nearby hospital or have a written contract with a physician who has such privileges.
• It adds new restrictions on the "judicial bypass" in which a girl under 18 can seek permission from a judge for an abortion in cases where getting permission from a parent is not possible or might put the girl in danger. Tate referred to the judicial bypass as a "loophole," and said her bill would require more strenuous efforts to obtain permission from parents.
• It puts new, extensive reporting requirements on abortion providers, which would involve notifying state health officials of any complication or adverse event following an abortion. It also requires the provider to report the patient's reason for the abortion, if known.
• It requires that parents can have a say in how fetal remains from an abortion may be disposed of and bans disposal of fetal remains as medical waste, instead requiring cremation or burial by a licensed establishment.
• It imposes new restrictions on medication abortions generally provided up to the 10th week of pregnancy, including rules for doctors and pharmacists. It requires an in-person visit with a physician, rather than telehealth, and also requires that a patient be counseled that the termination, which consists of taking medication several days apart, can be reversed, a medically unproven claim.
• It requires the state pharmacy board to create a new program to oversee the distribution of abortion drugs and oversee a new certification process for pharmacies, physicians, manufacturers and distributors who administer or provide the drugs.
• It also charges the pharmacy board with enforcing certification requirements with violations resulting in a fine of no less than $5 million for pharmacies, manufacturers and distributors and a fine of $250,000 for physicians. It also requires the board to create a complaint portal on its website which lists the names of all physicians certified to prescribe medication to induce abortions and pharmacies, manufacturers and distributors certified to supply it.
• It requires physicians who prescribe abortion drugs to maintain hospital admitting privileges at a nearby hospital or have a written contract with a physician who has such privileges.
• It adds new restrictions on the "judicial bypass" in which a girl under 18 can seek permission from a judge for an abortion in cases where getting permission from a parent is not possible or might put the girl in danger. Tate referred to the judicial bypass as a "loophole," and said her bill would require more strenuous efforts to obtain permission from parents.
• It puts new, extensive reporting requirements on abortion providers, which would involve notifying state health officials of any complication or adverse event following an abortion. It also requires the provider to report the patient's reason for the abortion, if known.
• It requires that parents can have a say in how fetal remains from an abortion may be disposed of and bans disposal of fetal remains as medical waste, instead requiring cremation or burial by a licensed establishment.

 

Keep in mind there is now only one abortion clinic left in the entire state, and if Roe v. Wade is overturned completely, the state's 2019 complete abortion ban will go into effect.  Finally, keep in mind voters will go to the polls in November to decide whether or not women have a constitutional right to an abortion at all in Kentucky.

Abortion will all but be impossible here in the state by summer.

I take that back. Safe, legal abortion will be impossible here, and in two dozen other states, by the end of the year.  In Texas, legal abortions are down by almost two-thirds already as the Supreme Court refuses to block the state's unconstitutional bounty law.

That's because in a few months, that law will no longer be unconstitutional, and everyone knows it. We're headed for a very dark period of American history by the end of this SCOTUS term.

The road to Gilead winds on.