FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — Abortion rights supporters rallied at the Capitol for the restoration of abortion access in Kentucky on Thursday.
Currently, in Kentucky, doctors are only able to offer abortion services if the life of the mother is in danger. Those at the rally called the near-total abortion ban "dystopian."
"This is Handmaid's Tale," said Brenda Rosen, who spoke at the rally. "A bullet should not have more rights than our vaginas."
"To have some politician, that none of us know, think that they can tell us what we can do with our body, instead of a doctor - it's enraging," said Jamie Dullen, who attended the rally.
Dullen, who is a mother and grandmother, held a sign saying "our daughters deserve choices." She said she is fighting for them and other women and girls in Kentucky.
"We had a situation happen with my daughter where she lost her child at 29-weeks pregnant. That was right after Roe v Wade fell," said Dullen. "So, it's frustrating to think that somebody can decide what my daughter went through that evening, and left the hospital without a baby, and to consider them as killers - it's disgusting."
Hadley Duvall, who is now a national abortion rights advocate who made high-profile appearances during the last presidential election, shared her story at the rally.
While growing up in Kentucky, she was sexually assaulted and impregnated by her stepfather.
"I was sexually abused starting at the age of five by my stepfather at the time. The abuse lasted about a decade," Duvall told the crowd. "When I was 12, I was holding a positive pregnancy test."
Duvall emphasized the importance of the choices she was offered. One of them being abortion, which was protected by Roe v Wade at the time.
"I later miscarried alone in my bathroom, which means I didn't have to go through with the abortion. But I stand here ten years later and I can confidently say my decision did not change one time," she said.
Currently, there is a push in the legislature to restore abortion rights, but the Democrat-led effort faces a tough battle in a Republican-controlled General Assembly.
Rep. Lindsey Burke introduced her two bills during a press conference on Thursday. She said her bills would return abortion care as it was for decades and protect Kentuckians who travel out of state for healthcare services they cannot legally obtain here.
House Bill 419 is being called the North Star Bill. It would guide abortion care back to where it was for decades after the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling.
“For most of my life, this care and access were seen by many Kentuckians as normal and just another facet of healthcare,” Burke said. “Returning us to that time is not a radical idea, no matter how much others might say otherwise.”
House Bill 418, is called the Shield Bill. It would strengthen privacy by blocking prosecutors from charging anyone involved when a woman travels to other states for reproductive-health care services not legally available in Kentucky.
“As we saw with former Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who led what the Kentucky Court of Appeals called a ‘fishing expedition’ of two abortion providers, the threat to families and physicians is very much real," Burke said. "If we cannot restore abortion care as it was, then at the very least we must better protect those who are forced to go elsewhere. It is no one’s business what they do in this regard.”
