FRANKFORT, Ky. — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed a Republican-backed measure on Friday that will ban abortions in Kentucky after 15 weeks of being pregnant and regulate the allotting of abortion capsules.
The governor raised doubts concerning the constitutionality of the invoice and criticized it for not together with exceptions for pregnancies brought on by rape or incest.
State lawmakers may have an opportunity to override the veto once they reconvene subsequent week for the ultimate two days of this 12 months’s 60-day legislative session. The abortion measure gained overwhelming help within the GOP-dominated legislature.
The proposal displays the newest try by Kentucky lawmakers to place extra restrictions and situations on abortion for the reason that GOP took full management of the legislature after the 2016 election.
The proposed 15-week ban is modeled after a Mississippi regulation below assessment by the U.S. Supreme Courtroom in a case that would dramatically restrict abortion rights. By taking the preemptive motion, the invoice’s supporters say that Kentucky’s stricter ban could be in place if the Mississippi regulation is upheld.
Kentucky regulation at present bans abortions after 20 weeks of being pregnant.
Beshear on Friday condemned the invoice for failing to exclude pregnancies brought on by rape or incest.
“Rape and incest are violent crimes,” the governor stated in his veto message. “Victims of those crimes ought to have choices, not be additional scarred by way of a course of that exposes them to extra hurt from their rapists or that treats them like offenders themselves.”
Beshear, a former state legal professional basic, additionally stated the invoice is “probably unconstitutional,” noting that related legal guidelines elsewhere had been struck down by the Supreme Courtroom. He pointed to provisions within the Kentucky invoice requiring docs performing nonsurgical procedures to take care of hospital admitting privileges in “geographical proximity” to the place the procedures are carried out.
“The Supreme Courtroom has dominated such necessities unconstitutional because it makes it unimaginable for girls, together with a toddler who’s a sufferer of rape or incest, to acquire a process in sure areas of the state,” the governor stated.
Opponents of the Kentucky invoice say its restrictions are so onerous that no abortion clinic may comply.
The invoice additionally would set rules for the allotting of abortion capsules. It might require girls to be examined in particular person by a physician earlier than receiving the treatment.
That a part of the invoice is a part of a nationwide push by anti-abortion teams to restrict the power of physicians to prescribe abortion capsules by telemedicine, and is available in response to the elevated use of capsules slightly than surgical procedure to terminate early pregnancies.
About half of all abortions carried out in Kentucky are the results of treatment procedures.
