Kentucky Republicans have beaten all other states to the punch in ending abortion, overriding Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear's veto (reminder that KY only requires simple majorities to override, so anything that passes the KY House and Senate can become law) and the law takes effect immediately. The road to Gilead has just become a highway to hell.
Kentucky's Republican-controlled General Assembly on Wednesday voted to override Gov. Andy Beshear's veto of an "omnibus" abortion bill that opponents say is so broad it will shut down access in the state.
And because it contains an emergency provision, House Bill 3 will become law as soon as it gets the signature of Senate President Robert Stivers, expected later Wednesday.
Opponents said Wednesday they would immediately head to federal court asking a judge to block House Bill 3.
Final passage of HB 3 makes Kentucky the first state to end all access to abortion, opponents said.
"Make no mistake, the Kentucky legislature's sole goal with this law is to shut down health centers and completely eliminate abortion access in this state," leaders with Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.
Supporters of HB 3, including Rep. Nancy Tate, R-Brandenburg, have said it's to protect women's health and expand rights of parents of minors who get abortions.
Lawyers for opponents said they would ask a judge in U.S. District Court in Louisville to block enforcement of the law while their challenge is pending.
But in the meantime, HB 3 likely would mean at least a temporary disruption in abortion services, they said.
Kentucky has two abortion providers, EMW Women's Surgical Center and Planned Parenthood, both in Louisville.
The American Civil Liberties Union, representing EMW, said its lawyers would file a lawsuit challenging the law Wednesday evening. Planned Parenthood said it would file its challenge early Thursday morning.
Opponents of the bill spent most of the day at the Capitol Wednesday protesting and could be heard shouting "Bans off our bodies!" as the House first voted to override the veto, followed several hours later by the Senate.
Reminder as to what the law now does:
HB 3 includes multiple new restrictions on abortion including:
- A ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
- A ban on medication by mail used to terminate early pregnancies.
- New restrictions for girls under 18 seeking abortions, including those asking a judge's permission for the procedure when a parent is not available or unlikely to approve because of abuse or neglect.
- A requirement that fetal remains be disposed of by burial or cremation, which could add hundreds of dollars of costs to the procedure.
- A requirement that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services create an extensive system to certify and oversee anyone who manufactures, ships or dispenses the two-drug regimen to end a pregnancy.
- A requirement that the state set up a complaint portal online and list all health workers who provide abortions or abortion medication. It would allow anonymous complaints and require the state to investigate all of them.
In other words, the law is specifically designed to drive the last two abortion clinics out of business with massive regulatory burdens, including making costs of the procedure run into the thousands of dollars with no medical insurance coverage (that's already illegal here), a brand new state regulatory authority created by the Health Cabinet to track and catalog every abortion for a 7-year period and a convenient state-run website to allow people to openly target every abortion clinic health worker in the state. And that's not including the criminal penalties for any health worker who violates any of this.
In other words, since precisely none of that structure has been set up by the state yet or by the clinics, all legal abortion procedures have to basically stop as of right now in Kentucky.
We'll see what a federal judge says, but as of right now, abortion is de facto illegal in the state.
Welcome to Gilead.
I told you.
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