FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — Abortion rights supporters are pushing to restore abortion access in Kentucky with a reversal bill this year. However, they acknowledge their effort won't be easy in the Republican-controlled legislature.
Democratic Rep. Lindsey Burke is calling the bill the North Star Bill. She explained the need for options during pregnancy while speaking about her recent challenging pregnancy.
"You're still going to have a child born that has no spine," she recalled her doctor telling her. "That child will never walk. That child will never have bladder control. That child will probably not live until age one."
Burke said while she was pregnant with twins, serious health issues were found with one of her babies. Those issues also put the other baby at risk, according to Burke.
"Chances are you will lose Baby A and you might lose Baby B also," Burke recalled her doctor saying.
Burke explained that she took her doctor's advice and left Kentucky to get a selective termination.
"Ezra - Baby A - was gone. But we managed to save Baby B - Ewan," Burke said.
Burke's experience reinforced her desire to help women in Kentucky have options during pregnancy. Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, a near-total abortion ban has been in place in Kentucky. The "trigger law" banned abortions except when carried out to save the woman's life. It does not include exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.
"It's not always a straightforward 'yay, we have a happy, positive pregnancy test. Nine months - oh, I got a little sick to my tummy but everything's okay - and now we have a baby.' That's not reality," said Burke. "So, when we legislate like that's reality, it fails to recognize that a vast majority of pregnant peoples' experience is not like that."
Burke's North Star Bill would roll back Kentucky's abortion laws to the time before Republicans claimed majority status in the House after the 2016 election. Since then, GOP lawmakers who dominate the legislature have passed a series of bills putting more restrictions on abortion, culminating in the near-total ban.
Republican supermajorities in Kentucky's legislature skipped over the abortion issue last year and so far have not taken up abortion-related measures in this year's session.
"I think the truth is that there's very little appetite for change, at least among the supermajority," Burke acknowledged at a news conference Wednesday.
But she predicted that grassroots activism to restore abortion access would eventually pay dividends. Activists point to the outcome of a statewide vote in 2022 when Kentuckians rejected a ballot measure backed by GOP lawmakers that would have denied any constitutional protections for abortion.
"They told us loud and clear when they voted no on Amendment 2 and voted to keep the ban out of our state constitution," said Tamarra Wieder, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. "That's because access to healthcare should not be political."
"The more these groups get mobilized, the more they speak to their lawmakers, I think we will get to a place where action will be required," Burke said. "And I will look forward to that day."
Abortion opponents gathered for a recent rally at Kentucky's Capitol, where they "stood together as one voice, united in love for every precious life," said Addia Wuchner, executive director of Kentucky Right to Life.
Democratic colleagues and abortion-rights supporters joined Burke at the news conference. Jackie McGranahan, a senior policy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said the ban fails to recognize that some pregnancies are unplanned, complicated, and risky.
"Repealing the current abortion ban in Kentucky is not about promoting one choice over another," she said. "It's about recognizing that pregnancy can be complicated. And it's our duty to ensure individuals have the autonomy to make decisions that are best for their health, their families and their future."
A Senate bill introduced early in this year's session would relax the state's abortion ban by allowing the procedure when pregnancies are caused by rape or incest or when pregnancies are deemed nonviable or medical emergencies threaten the mother. The Democratic-sponsored bill has made no headway.
That bill won an endorsement from Hadley Duvall, who dominated discussion about abortion during last year's campaign for Kentucky governor. Now a college senior in her early 20s, Duvall became pregnant as a seventh grader but ultimately miscarried. Her stepfather was convicted of rape. She recounted those traumatic events in a campaign ad for Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear that attacked his Republican challenger's longstanding support for the state's abortion ban. Beshear won a resounding reelection victory last November.
Kentucky's Supreme Court last year refused to strike down the near-total abortion ban. The justices ruled on narrow legal issues but left unanswered the larger constitutional questions about whether access to abortion should be legal in the Bluegrass State.
In late 2023, a Kentucky woman sued to demand the right to an abortion, but her attorneys later withdrew the lawsuit after the woman learned her embryo no longer had cardiac activity.
In Kentucky, Burke revealed two other bills Wednesday. One would provide legal protections for private medical information and providers when patients go to different states to undergo abortions. The other bill seeks to provide more Kentucky women with information about maternal and postpartum depression.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
