FRANKFORT, Ky.– A young woman who dominated the abortion debate during last year’s Kentucky campaign stepped forward again Tuesday, calling on lawmakers to relax the state’s near-total abortion ban.
Months after Hadley Duvall revealed the trauma of rape and impregnation in a powerful campaign ad, he headed to the state House to pass a bill that would add exemptions to the anti-abortion law. The measure would allow abortions when pregnancies are caused by rape or incest, or when pregnancies are considered nonviable or when medical emergencies threaten the mother.
She worked with Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and the bill’s lead sponsor to generate momentum, but its fate will ultimately be decided by Republican supermajorities in the Legislature. The prospects for ruling out more exceptions appear uncertain as Republican lawmakers grapple with the issue.
Duvall, now a college student in her early 20s, became pregnant when she was in seventh grade but ultimately suffered a miscarriage. Her stepfather was convicted of rape. She recounted these traumatic events in a Beshear campaign ad attacking his Republican challenger’s long-standing support for the abortion ban. The commercial put the Republican candidate, then-Attorney General Daniel Cameron, on the defensive for weeks until the November election, which Beshear won convincingly.
The Associated Press does not normally identify victims of sexual assault, but Duvall has chosen to be identified and has spoken out publicly about what she experienced and its connection to the abortion debate.
Duvall turned her attention to winning over the Legislature Tuesday, noting that under current Kentucky law she would have had to carry her pregnancy to term.
“There are women and girls across Kentucky right now who are dealing with the same trauma that I experienced,” she said. “Those women and girls need their choices. This bill will provide that.”
The debate over relaxing Kentucky’s abortion ban comes after years of Republicans adding restrictions to the procedure. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a state trigger law was passed years ago before it became law. It bans abortions in Kentucky except when performed to save the life of the mother.
Since this year’s legislative session last week, prominent Republicans have spoken about how this is a deeply personal issue for their colleagues. House Speaker David Osborne recently called abortion a “heavily debated issue” with “many strong opinions” among Republican members.
Democratic state Sen. David Yates, the lead sponsor of the new exemption bill, denounced Kentucky’s abortion law as one of the most restrictive in the country. His legislation would represent “a very small step in the right direction for a very limited number of victims that we can help,” he said Tuesday.
Kentucky is one of fourteen states that currently maintain a ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Two others have been given a similar ban in court. And two others have bans that come into effect when heart activity can be detected – after about six weeks’ gestation and before women often realize they are pregnant.
Several laws were passed while the U.S. Supreme Court still ruled a nationwide right to abortion under the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, and only went into effect after that precedent was overturned with the new ruling in 2022.
Laws in states with the most severe restrictions are mixed on the exceptions. Most states allow abortion when the woman’s life is in immediate danger, although a recent ruling says Texas does not have to do so. Some have them for pregnancies caused by rape or incest, others don’t. A few states allow abortion in the case of rape, but not incest. There is also conflicting policy on whether abortions are allowed if there is a fatal fetal abnormality.
In Kentucky, access to abortion remained virtually closed after the state Supreme Court refused to halt the ban last year. However, the justices ruled on narrow legal issues and left unanswered larger constitutional questions about whether access to abortion should be legal. In 2022, Kentucky voters rejected a ballot measure aimed at denying any constitutional protection for abortion.
Last month, a woman in Kentucky filed a lawsuit demanding the right to an abortion. But her lawyers later withdrew the lawsuit after the plaintiff learned that her embryo had lost cardiac activity.
Beshear, an abortion rights supporter, said Tuesday that he would immediately sign the new exemption bill if it came to his desk. The rape and incest exceptions would ensure “those who have been harmed and violated in the worst ways have options,” the governor said.
In comments that echoed her tough message to Cameron last year, Duvall called on lawmakers to consider the “real world implications” of the current abortion ban.
“I’m here with a clear message: unless you’ve been in this position, you have no idea what any woman or girl is going through right now,” she said Tuesday. “So there have to be options. Lawmakers should not feel entitled to force victims with stories like mine to carry a baby from their rapist.”
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Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.