Gov. Bevin has signed HB 5 into law and filed a response to the ACLU’s legal challenge. In a news release, insights to the dispute are presented:

• House Bill 5, known as the Human Rights of the Unborn Child and Anti-Discrimination Act, was passed by overwhelming majorities in both legislative chambers during the 2019 Kentucky General Assembly.
• Legal counsel for Gov. Bevin, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Adam Meier, has filed a response to a Louisville abortion clinic's motion for a temporary restraining order against HB 5. (See previous post as to why AG Beshear did not file the response.)
• The response argues: “EMW and its abortionists have responded with a novel claim: women have a constitutional right to undergo race-based abortions, gender-based abortions, and disability-based abortions. In [the] plaintiffs' view, somewhere in the Fourteenth Amendment's penumbra lies a secret protection of eugenics. That is a perverse distortion of Roe v. Wade and its progeny."
• A temporary restraining order enjoining House Bill 5 is not warranted. …The Supreme Court’s abortion jurisprudence has historically been framed as the right to decide whether to have a child as opposed to the right to have a child with certain attributes. That crucial distinction is dispositive here. (that is, it requires settlement of this dispute).

Read the full response here. Thank you Gov. Bevin and Secy. Meier!

Thank You, Kentucky State Legislators and Governor Matt Bevin

The four bills that were introduced by Kentucky’s Pro-life Caucus on January 10 ALL passed the current legislative session. We know our Governor will sign them all!

SB 227, introduced on Feb. 15 to protect Born Alive Infants, did not make it to the finish line. We hope this bill will be re-introduced next year.

How does it feel to live in a pro-life state? Wonderful! What relief we pro-lifers feel (!), knowing that the majority of our legislators have the deepest concern for pre-born babies. Perhaps there are many things in your community and state that you would like to see changed, but at least we do have respect for life. The majority of us are holding firm that our U.S. Constitution means what it says about our Right to Life.

The bills, SB 9, the “heartbeat bill”; SB 50, abortion pill reporting requirements AND the doctor must explain the Abortion Pill Reversal Pill to the client; HB 5, no abortion for discriminatory reasons based on sex, race, color, national origin or disability; and HB 148, to end abortion if and when Roe v. Wade is overturned by SCOTUS— ALL had bipartisan support. That is further proof that Kentucky is, in the main, PRO-LIFE.

Will Kentucky be the first state NOT to have an abortion clinic? There is national speculation about that. With the ACLU challenges to our pro-life laws and bills not yet signed into law, we can’t say.

Currently we have only ONE, the EMW clinic in Louisville. And, Planned Parenthood has a clinic in Louisville with aggressive plans to establish a larger presence.

We can’t rest on our laurels but we can enjoy the moment. Today, we are passionately grateful and taking the day off. (But we are in the office!)

Enjoy the full testimony of Abby Johnson at the Public Protection Committee hearing.

Late Tuesday night the Kentucky House voted to pass HB5 that bans abortion based on race, color, national origin, gender or disability. No Republican voted Nay. The final tally was 100 to 39, with 25 democrats voting against it and eight House members absent. A Roll Call on the vote is here. The Bill has been received in the Senate.