House Bill 3, the Humanity in Healthcare Act— our ‘6 ProLife Bills in 1,’ has passed, and Secretary of State Adams will sign it into law. The Secretary of State signs all bills into law when they have required an override of a Governor’s veto.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers this Session and your calls to Frankfort. Kentucky Right to Life is honored to serve as your voice in Frankfort, working with our House and Senate on prolife legislation.

House Bill 3 is the result of over a year’s work! We want to thank the entire Kentucky ProLife Caucus, and especially Representatives Tate (shown in the Rotunda), King, Prunty and Bechler in the House along with Senator Max Wise for his work on SB 321 and the 15-week abortion restriction, and Senator Alvarado.

A special thank you to KRTL members and friends for your calls this week asking your Legislators to vote “YES” to override the Governor’s veto on HB3!

It has been a long session and your legislators have worked extremely hard. When the final vote is cast and the gavel falls declaring Sine Die later today, the 2022 Legislative Session will be a wrap.

I have a favor to ask: Please take a moment to call Frankfort one more time, just to say, Thank you for the voting to override the HB3 veto! Please call the Legislative Message Line at 1-800-372-7181.

Angry winds

As tornadic winds ripped across Kentucky last night, the anger from the pro-abortion advocates was also intensifying. The ACLU, EMW and Planned Parenthood all will challenge this legislation in court. They have raised truckloads of money to defeat HB3.

Kentucky is a battleground state. To quote from today's Courier-Journal, "Final passage of HB 3 makes Kentucky the first state to end all access to abortion..." Read More.

We take pride in that, however, we know that it makes our opponents even more determined to defeat our powerful legislation.

The VETO Override Senate voting history is shown in the picture above and the House vote is on this page. The asterisk indicates the Senator is a Republican. Also shown is a screenshot from the New York Times that reminds why we are fighting so hard.

Did you know?

House Bill 3 updates the sections of Kentucky law impacted by Judicial ByPass (Federal Law provisions since 1979) making clear that the Court must consider all information, including whether the minor child is a victim of sexual abuse by one or both of her parents, or another individual. This speaks to the issues of rape and incest.

HB3 will not end abortion in Kentucky, but restricts it to 15 weeks and bans mail-order abortions. This Bill reflects the General Assembly’s commitment to Kentucky’s most vulnerable citizens. It shows the legislators' dedication in advocating for justice and safe healthcare practices for unborn children and their mothers.

"The scramble late Wednesday to try to block the law was similar to that of 2019, when lawmakers passed a bill to ban abortions after six weeks and then-Gov. Matt Bevin, an anti-abortion Republican, signed it into law the same day.

"That forced EMW, then the state's only abortion provider, to cancel appointments and suspend abortions for a day until the law was blocked by a federal judge. That law remains suspended while the legal challenge is pending." (ibid, C-J)

We know a fight is imminent, but for today, let’s focus on thanking our legislators and celebrating the HB3 victory in the State House!

The Humanity in Healthcare Act is a multifaceted ProLife bill compromised of bills filed in previous years by several legislators. Kentucky Right to Life was honored to work over the last year with House members who contributed to the bill and with its sponsor, Representative Nancy Tate, co-chair of the ProLife Caucus.

Thank you to Representatives Tate, Prunty, Beckler, Bentley; Senators Meredith, Mills; and members of the ProLife Caucus for contributions to the Act.

Reflecting on the 2022 Humanity in Healthcare Act and the gift of every child, Representative Tate stated, “God granted all of us, born and unborn, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is not the right of any person to take this gift away from the weakest among us, who cannot protect themselves no matter the circumstances. I am and will always be an advocate for our children.”

Elements of the Act

• Updates current law concerning parental consent and protection of minors— the judicial bypass guidelines are in place
• Dignified care for the terminated remains of pregnancy loss
• Updates reporting requirements for pregnancy termination statistics
• Requires chemical/medical pregnancy termination health guidelines
• No taxpayer funding of abortion in Ky

While in Frankfort on February 9^th, I had the opportunity to speak with many House members, including Speaker David Osborne, who said the comprehensive ProLife legislation will be assigned as House Bill 3. Typically, priority legislative measures are assigned the first five to 10 bill numbers, so this is great news, ProLife Kentucky!

Please call your Legislators, and ask them to support HB3! The Legislative Hotline number is 1-800-372-7181.

The image is from a slideshow explaining the need for HB3.

Washington Update: This week Kentucky RTL Executive Director Addia Wuchner joined forces and signed a Collaborative Document, opposing the appointment of Dr. Robert Califf as FDA Commissioner. Sorry to say, his nomination moved forward in a close bipartisan vote on Jan. 14. The following excerpt from an article by Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America, details our opposition to this latest Biden administration nominee to an agency of the U.S.

Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP) is set to vote on President Biden’s nominee for Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Robert Califf. Califf is a self-proclaimed ardent believer in data and a renowned figure in biomedical science. The average American would logically assume that such a person could be entrusted to protect the health and safety of our nation. The problem is, Califf, who previously served as FDA commissioner under President Obama from February 2016 to January 2017, has a troubling record of corrupting data to prioritize partisan interests over the health and safety of vulnerable women when it comes to abortion.

Until 2016, the REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies) for chemical abortion required the reporting of severe, life-threatening, and fatal adverse events. Under Califf’s esteemed leadership and direction, this requirement was altered so that only deaths be reported. Following this decision, 75 members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter highlighting concerns and requesting comprehensive metrics on the dangers of the abortion pill, mifepristone. Califf never responded…

Although the FDA’s job is to ensure the efficacy of drugs for all Americans, its safety claims lack any semblance of credibility, as the agency ignores flawed data and fails to strengthen weak reporting requirements. A report published earlier this year on the FDA’s data on deaths and injuries related to the chemical abortion pill, found incomplete data including 500 “uncodable” events. Complete gaps in critical health information are unacceptable, especially for a federal entity trusted with oversight of our “health and safety.” Califf perpetuated this issue during his first stint atop the FDA, and we should not blindly grant him another term.

Many Senators seemingly turned a blind eye during his confirmation hearings last month, as Califf garnered “bipartisan” support from members of the committee. When the topic of chemical abortion was raised, Califf promised the committee that the agency’s decisions would always be grounded in the latest and greatest data.…

All of this does not even consider Califf’s ties to pharma. After leaving his first term as FDA Commissioner in 2017, Califf went to work as a consultant and board member for numerous health industry companies such as Cytokinetics, Bitterroot Bio, Centessa Pharmaceuticals, and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals. He possesses millions of dollars’ worth of pharmaceutical company stocks…

Read more.

NO SURPRISES HERE! On Thursday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made “permanent” its April 2021 Covid Pandemic lifting of medical restrictions on RU486 ALLOWING ABORTION PILLS BY MAIL! While we anticipated the FDA’s further expansion of this dangerous Death by Mail distribution of the RU486 chemical abortion protocol, it only affirms the abortion lobby’s disregard for human life. This reaffirms what ProLife advocates have continued to say - that their anti-Iife agenda is also anti-women’s health and safety!

The FDA order removes the longstanding required in-person medical provider protocol for women seeking a chemical abortion (medical-nonsurgical termination of her pregnancy). Thursday’s decision by the FDA allows the combination abortion pills protocol - mifepristone and misoprostol, to be distributed by mail. (During the Covid 19 Pandemic, the FDA had temporarily lifted the in-person medical protocol requirement on mifepristone, the first of the two-drug protocol required to end a pregnancy).

“Sadly, we were anticipating this tragic weakening of Federal safety regulations and further disregard for the health of young girls and women,” said Kentucky Right to Life Executive Director, Addia Wuchner. “Kentucky Right to Life has been conferring for over a year with other prolife groups and medical professionals on this matter. Long before the pandemic, we were acutely aware of this extended overexpansion by the abortion and anti-life lobby and their promotion of dangerous DO-IT-YOURSELF abortions. They view chemical abortion as the future of their industry, as it is cost-effective for them and more difficult to regulate.”

On Wednesday of this week, Addia, Kentucky State Representative Nancy Tate and Dr. Ingrid Skop presented legislation for the upcoming Legislative Session before the Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare. The Humanity in Healthcare Act is multi-provisional legislation prepared for the 2022 General Assembly Session.

An entire section of the bill contains language that would ban mail-order abortions in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The proposed bill requires standardized practice for distribution of this two-pill abortion protocol which includes an in-person meeting with the medical provider, an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy and gestational age, lab work such as testing for RH factor and STD screening, along with information on medical risks for example infection or bleeding, what to expect after taking the medication, when to seek emergency treatment if necessary, and requires a 14-day follow-up visit with her medical provider. It also reaffirms that the women be provided information on abortion bill reversal, currently required by Kentucky law.

In recent months, we have presented an overview of the Humanity in Healthcare Act 2022 before two interim legislative committee hearings and on KET Kentucky Tonight.

Kentucky Right to Life is the oldest statewide ProLife organization serving and advocating for the protection of the unborn child and the most vulnerable in our midst. We are unwaveringly ProWoman and ProWomen’s Health and while we DO NOT advocate or promote abortion. We will not stand silently in the face of risky healthcare measures that hold little regard for the current or future health of Kentucky’s young girls and women.

Presentations by Rep. Nancy Tate and KRTL's Addia Wuchner were made before the Ky Interim Joint Committee on Health, Welfare & Family Services Hearing on Dec. 15. ObGyn Dr. Ingrid Skop joined the presentation virtually. Those opposed to the Bill also had opportunity to speak. Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and UofL were represented at the hearing. Learn more.

It is interesting that the ACLU sued its buddy, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, to overturn the FDA regulation on the Abortion Pill that called for in-person physician oversight.

Was Becerra really opposed to this so that he needed to be taken to court?

As a team, the ACLU, the American College of ObGyns, and various other attorneys work together to achieve pro-abortion goals. If they need an Amicus brief, they round up their fellow Medical Associations and other pals, including the

• American Medical Association,
• American Academy of Family Physicians,
• American Society for Reproduce time Medicine,
• National Abortion Federation,
• North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology,
• National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health,
• Planned Parenthood,
• Reproductive Health Access Project—

Well, just see the full list here.

As you can tell, there is a team at work to undermine the law concerning when, where, how and by whom the Abortion Pill can be supplied.

The team includes expert witnesses who may identify as anonymous providers. And their testimonies are remarkably similar.

So, while it may appear as though the FDA simply agreed to new rules as a way of helping women during the Covid-19 environment, there is an army behind the effort to change the rules, and for us to think the old rule will apply at some future date is wishful thinking.

So now, what happens to Ky’s laws against distributing Abortion Pills by mail, by webcam, using federal funds, and always reporting any complications? How can our law be enforced that requires women to be advised upon receiving the Abortion Pill that it can be reversed?

Will the federal rulings dismantle Ky’s hard-won pro-life law victories?

We won’t take such change ‘sitting down’! KyRTL is on the move. Our executive director Addia Wuchner with our pro-life partners will work to maintain safety standards for women seeking abortions. Please join our effort by donating to KyRTL. Watch for more details!