Bill filed in Kentucky House would ease near-total abortion ban by adding rape and incest exceptions
FRANKFORT, Ky.– Legislation aimed at loosening Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban by creating limited exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest was introduced Monday in the Republican Party-dominated House as lawmakers argued over an issue at the heart of the campaign last year for governor.
Republican state Rep. Ken Fleming filed the measure on the last day new House bills could be introduced during this year’s 60-day session. The bill’s prospects are uncertain, with House Speaker David Osborne saying the Republican Party supermajority in the chamber has not discussed a specific abortion bill.
Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban has been in effect since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The state’s so-called trigger law went into effect, banning abortions except when performed to save the mother’s life or prevent a disabling injury. . No exceptions are included for cases of rape or incest.
Fleming’s proposal would change that by making abortions legal in cases of rape and incest, if done no later than six weeks after the first day of the woman’s last menstrual period, according to a statement describing the bill. The measure would also allow abortion to remove a dead fetus and in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, meaning the fetus would not survive after birth.
“We all face difficult, heartbreaking decisions in life,” Fleming said in the statement. “As a father of two daughters, I have always supported them financially, emotionally and especially spiritually. With them on my mind and in my heart, exceptions for lifesaving measures for the mother and in cases of rape or incest should be included in our state’s abortion law.”
Current exceptions to save the mother’s life or prevent disabling injuries would continue to be covered by his bill.
The measure also includes a provision that creates a process for doctors to document the circumstances surrounding an abortion performed under state law.
The last-minute bill filing echoes another Republican lawmaker’s attempt last year to loosen the state’s abortion ban. That measure, which was also introduced on the last day for bills to be introduced in the House of Representatives, made no progress as the abortion issue was passed over in 2023 by Republican supermajorities in the Legislature.
The issue came to the fore last year during Kentucky’s hotly contested gubernatorial race. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, an abortion rights supporter who was re-elected to a second term, hammered home his Republican challenger’s support for the state’s sweeping abortion ban.
The Kentucky Supreme Court declined to lift the ban last year. However, the justices ruled on narrow legal issues but left unanswered the larger constitutional questions of 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 lawyers later dropped the lawsuit after learning her embryo had lost cardiac activity. In 2022, Kentucky voters rejected a ballot measure aimed at denying any constitutional protection for abortion.
Kentucky is one of fourteen states that currently ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the nationwide right to abortion, most Republican-controlled states have passed some form of ban. Two of them – Georgia and South Carolina – ban abortion as soon as heart activity can be detected, about six weeks into pregnancy and before women often realize they are pregnant. Utah and Wyoming have bans on abortion during pregnancy, but their enforcement has been put on hold by the courts while they weigh whether the laws comply with state constitutions.