National Right to Life News | by Dave Andrusko | November 10, 2022

The defeat of Kentucky’s Amendment 2 “does not mean there is a right to abortion hidden in the Kentucky Constitution and that the regulation of abortion policy is a matter that belongs to our elected representatives”

When Kentucky’s proposed pro-life Amendment 2 narrowly lost Tuesday night, some accounts acted as though that defeat meant there was suddenly a right to abortion. The exact language was “To protect human life, nothing in this constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.”

Yesterday, in a tweet Attorney General Daniel Cameron made clear that in his opinion “while this result is disappointing it does not change our belief there is no right to abortion hidden in the Kentucky Constitution and that the regulation of abortion policy is a matter that belongs to our elected representatives in the General assembly.”

On Wednesday Cameron’s office “filed a motion with the Kentucky Supreme Court to explain why this outcome has no bearing on whether the Court should consider creating a Kentucky version of Roe v. Wade. We urge the Court to interpret our Constitution based on its original meaning.”

Current Justices of the Kentucky Supreme Court

Just before the vote, in an op-ed, state Senators Alvarado and Wise explained what the amendment would accomplish:

Voters have an opportunity to affirm unequivocally, that there is no inherent constitutional right to an abortion in the Constitution of Kentucky. …

Constitutional Amendment 2 simply does two things: it says that under the Kentucky Constitution, abortion is not a right and it prevents state funding from being used to perform them. By voting yes on this amendment, you are keeping judges from creating new constitutional rights not explicitly addressed nor even implied in our founding state document.  This amendment will continue to protect the woman’s life if a pregnancy is to be a medical risk to her life.

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In an op-ed that ran October 25, Cameron wrote:

Shortly before Roe, Kentucky’s highest court considered a constitutional challenge to this statute. The court unanimously rejected the challenge and upheld the law. The court determined that deciding whether and when to prohibit abortion was a matter for the General Assembly and emphasized the court’s “obligation to exercise judicial restraint” regarding the will of the legislature.

For 49 years, our long history of protecting unborn life had been eclipsed by federal judicial activism, but thankfully the shadow of Roe has now lifted.

Read full article.

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Read Attorney General Cameron’s Appeal based on case law and Kentucky’s century-long history of protecting unborn human life to the fullest extent possible.

View the briefs submitted to the Court.

Amicus brief of KRTL in support of General Cameron

Watch live coverage of the trial on KET, 10 AM Tuesday November 15.

From the office of Addia Wuchner, RN, Executive Director, Kentucky Right to Life & the Right to Life Educational Foundation of Kentucky | 11-9-22

After the long campaign, our team is filled with gratitude for everyone who joined our cause. From the legislators who gave us this opportunity, to our grassroots advocates who prayed and worked, to every voter who showed up in every county to vote Yes for Life, thank you.

The overturning of Roe and the General Election have shown us how much work remains to be done to protect the right to life in Kentucky and across the country. We remain faithful and committed to do that work.

Kentucky Right to Life, our chapters and our pro-life advocates across the Commonwealth will continue giving voice to the voiceless and standing up for the sanctity of life for all of God’s children. Thank you to everyone who voted Yes on 2 and supported this important cause.

Abortion advocates regularly claim that abortion promotes women’s social and economic well-being. Kentucky women deserve better than a flawed medical model of practices in women’s healthcare that embraces the destruction of a human life, the life of their child.

Today, we are disappointed, yet our hearts are not defeated. Tomorrow will find us motivated. This work is too important to slow down, and we look forward to the next phase of pro-life advocacy in Kentucky, changing hearts and saving lives.

We will continue to be a bold unwavering voice for the voiceless.

The November 8 election is only three weeks out. Early voting starts November third! The Yes for Life ads now on TV have been in production mode for many months. The campaign to coordinate the Yes for Life partners and get the word out through rallies, a website, the State Fair, meetings, yard signs, and in many other ways, began in August of 2021. See the progress in these blog posts. Watch for the ads!

Elections matter

The POTUS has plans to sign a bill for legal abortion up to birth, should the Democrats retain power following the midterm elections.

Yes for Life Alliance Founding Members | Opinion Contributors | Oct 14, 2022

Bolded type added here for readers’ reflection.

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Yes for Life Alliance OpEd in the Courier-Journal

by The Yes for Life Alliance Founding Members: Addia Wuchner (Kentucky Right to Life), Angela Minter (Sisters for Life), Todd Gray (Kentucky Baptist Convention), Jason Hall (Catholic Conference of Kentucky), David Walls (The Family Foundation) and Richard Nelson (Commonwealth Policy Center).

On a bright Saturday afternoon on the steps of the State Capitol, hundreds of pro-life Kentuckians made a strong and impassioned plea for life. Women and men of all ages from across Kentucky joined together in one voice and one cause: to encourage voters to approve the Yes for Life Amendment on November’s ballot. This amendment gives Kentuckians—for the first time ever— the opportunity to directly vote to protect the sanctity of vulnerable human life and safeguard our tax dollars from paying for the horrors of abortion.

As the Founding Members of the Yes for Life Alliance, we proudly welcomed the group to their Capitol at a pivotal moment for our commonwealth. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe earlier this year, the debate over abortion has come to states and ballot boxes across the country.

Here in Kentucky, voters will have the unique chance to enshrine our pro-life values with Constitutional Amendment #2.

Kentucky’s pro-life amendment is as simple as it is profound. With a few short words, this amendment can protect life, safeguard your tax dollars from paying for abortions and shore up our framework of common-sense pro-life laws from activist judges.

The amendment says: “To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.”

The need for constitutional protections for the right to life is urgent. At this moment, pro-abortion activists are in state courts asking judges to “invent” a right to abortion. They want to tear down decades of Kentucky’s pro-life laws and take us one step closer to extreme abortion on demand.

Opponents of the Yes for Life Amendment are funded by radical, out-of-state interests who want to spend your tax dollars on abortions through all nine months of pregnancy. California may allow taking a baby’s life up to the moment of birth, but that’s too extreme for Kentucky. Voting yes on Amendment #2 will protect Kentucky’s pro-life laws and values from being overrun by coastal elites.

Don’t fall for the abortion industry’s disinformation. They can only win through fearmongering and deception. Abortion is not healthcare, and Amendment #2 does not affect lifesaving medical care for ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages. Kentucky’s current law protects the life and health of mothers and voting Yes for Life will codify that framework.

That’s why our Alliance has been hard at work across Kentucky, engaging pro-life voters to proudly show their support for the unborn and the Yes for Life Amendment. We’ve hosted grassroots trainings, spoken in churches and community meetings and are encouraging all people of faith and conscience to join our cause.

We need every pro-life Kentuckian to take part in this movement and stop the radical abortion industry from forcing your tax dollars to pay for abortions.

Today, you can pledge your YES vote on Constitutional Amendment #2 at YesforLifeKY.com. You’ll also find the tools and resources to encourage your friends, families and church communities to support the critical ProLife amendment.

Finally, when you go to the polls, join us in using your ballot to give voice to the vulnerable and vote YES for Life.

Our Yes for Life Rally was a blast of encouragement— Thank you to all who attended! There were other places we could have been on a beautiful Saturday in the autumn, but what is more beautiful than the unborn children of our state?

We hear and read the mainstream media telling us to vote against Amendments 2 and 1. Amendment 1 would allow our legislators to call themselves back into Session in emergency situations. Currently, Gov. Beshear alone has that privilege and has used it to mandate emergency regulations, yet none to close any abortion clinics.

Amendment 2 provides that our Constitution, like the U.S. Constitution, does not include a right to abortion, as was "invented" in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Take a stand against activist judges!

Be sure to share with friends and associates that Yes on #2 has no effect on medical emergencies of women who are pregnant. These ladies are protected by current law.

Thank you to all speakers, pro-life groups, pastors, performers, exhibitors, volunteers and citizens who helped to lift up the banner of Yes for Life! See more photos here.

Our loudspeakers were more insistent than the Bans off our Bodies bullhorns! Keep up the good work with door-to-door campaigning and yard signs! Let's all pray for Amendment #2 to pass.

Some parts of our state will soon hear and see media ads promoting Yes for Life.

by Addia Wuchner, RN, Executive Director, KRTL

We are approaching the last critical aspect of insuring the passage of Amendment #2— The GOTV - Get Out The VOTE for the November General Election!

You have all been so great, attending our Yes for Life informational sessions, ordering yard signs, shirts and bumper stickers, and donating. Thank you for sharing the TRUTH about Amendment #2 and dispelling the lies and misinformation put forth by the abortion industry.

We still have much work to accomplish: raising $$$, distributing more yard signs, and walking the neighborhoods. We need a YES Vote by 51% to win passage of Amendment #2.

Tomorrow, Sunday, marks our 51 Days of Prayer for 51% of the Vote! It's a critical aspect of our campaign that you can do, rain or shine no matter wherever you are.

We will be outspent by millions and bombarded by lies from the powerful forces of the abortion industry, but we place our trust in our Creator. Prayer is our smooth stone, like the biblical David's stone, that slays the giant Goliath— the abortion industry cartel.

Thank you for your faithful and unwavering support for the most vulnerable in our midst, Kentucky’s unborn children and their mothers.

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The mainstream media tells us that women are not able to get basic healthcare and medicines because of the current closure of abortion clinics. Abortion is not health care! It is the only pill or medical procedure that results in the intended termination of an unborn child.

Please watch the first minutes of this KET video with testimony about what the Yes for Life Constitutional Amendment actually would accomplish, or read the transcript here. It makes clear that this Amendment to our Constitution ONLY prevents activist judges from issuing ‘opinions’ and controlling the abortion issues through our courts.

Kentucky’s Constitution states that our legislators alone are permitted to create laws. The legal suit challenging current abortion law declares that the statute in question is unconstitutional. If judges are permitted to insert and find new rights in our Constitution, where does it end? What will be the next right an activist judge will find in Ky’s Constitution?

by Addia Wuchner, RN, Executive Director, KRTL

A map on LifeNews.com shows Kentucky is one of 13 abortion-free states as of this week! The steadfast commitment of pro-lifers to pro-life work, support and voting over many years made this possible. THANK YOU TO ALL.

We celebrate today, but there is much work yet to be done as we head to November 8th.

The radical left with their abortion-on-demand agenda is pouring $$$$$, lies, and walkers going door to door in Kentucky, to defeat Constitutional Amendment #2. They spent many millions to defeat the abortion-ban amendment in Kansas and they are doing so here.

They have crafted slick ads to convince people that Ky’s Amendment #2 would deny medical care to women in emergency situations. THIS IS FALSE. Even in the current Acts of Ky Law pertaining to public health and abortion, updated the spring, it is declared:

Nothing in this section shall be deemed to deprive a woman of all appropriate medical care necessary to prevent her physical death.

Father’s rights are ignored in the abortion lobby rhetoric. African-Americans are singled out as though they are a target for pro-lifers who desire to harm their health and pocketbooks. The truth is— Their neighborhoods are targeted for abortion centers!

Pre-born babies are —invisible— never ever acknowledged. Abortion is 'sold' as 'reproductive justice' and as 'healthcare.'

Abortion is certainly not healthcare; its risks are listed in a law passed by our legislature in 2019. You can read these risks here on pages 3 and 4. They include infection, pulmonary embolism, coma, and 22 others. Be informed!

In Ky Law, LIFE is defined:

(6) “Fetus"

means a human being from fertilization until birth;

(8) "Human being"

means any member of the species homo sapiens from fertilization until death

Look around

Already we are seeing ‘Vote NO Ky Amendment 2’ signs in stores and yard signs in many front yards. Just ONE example.

PLEASE call our office, 502-895-5959, and request a Yes-for-Life yard sign!

Your boots-on-the-ground going door-to-door and signs in your yard are much needed. Explain Yes-for-Life to neighbors, friends and IN YOUR CHURCH. There is no law against sharing information about Amendment #2 in any church! BE PRO-ACTIVE.

Please contact our office, 502-895-5959, if you would like someone to speak at your church on Yes-for-Life!

Did you know that Planned Parenthood merged its Great Northwest affiliate with PPINK—the Indiana-Ky chapter —in 2021? Though their official announcement called it a ‘six-state region,’ it is not a geographic region but a disjointed conglomeration: The merger provides money from certain western states to DEMOLISH PRO-LIFE VALUES in America’s heartland!

Voting "YES" on Constitutional Amendment #2 will stop the left's radical abortion agenda in Kentucky and it will prevent your taxpayer $$$ from funding abortion!

The amendment ensures that our duly elected legislators make the laws of our state as our Constitution requires.

Please call today to request a speaker for your church and a yard sign! November 8 or early voting on November 3 is only about two months away.

MEDIA STATEMENT provided by Addia Wuchner, RN, Executive Director, KRTL | 8-3-22

“ProLife Americans energetically sought the Friday, June 24th, Supreme Court decision overturning Roe for over four decades. Perhaps, with the Roe v. Wade overturn, too many folks on our side may think we’ve won the battle. In fact, the battle has only shifted from the federal level to the states.

“Kansas voters on Tuesday rejected a ballot measure similar to Kentucky’s Amendment #2, to tighten restrictions or ban abortion outright.

“Kentucky is a pro-life state. Our laws reflect the long-held values of Kentuckians”, said Addia Wuchner, Executive Director, Kentucky Right to Life and Chair of the Yes for Life Alliance.

“In recent years the abortion industry has sanitized the word ‘abortion,’ framing it as healthcare. Abortion is not healthcare; it is the only medical procedure that results in the intended termination of an unborn child.

“The wording of Kentucky’s Amendment 2 is very clear and concise. It is probably too soon to fully analyze the reason for the Kansas ballot outcome. The wording on the Kansas ballot was longer than our statement, and that may have been a factor.

“In Kentucky, we remain laser-focused on motivating our overwhelmingly pro-life state to turn out and vote ‘Yes for Life’ on Tuesday, November 8th!’’ stated Wuchner.

by Addia Wuchner, Execuive Director, KRTL

This November, every Kentuckian will have the opportunity to take action for our PROLIFE values! By voting Yes for Life, we can all make clear there is no right to abortion or funding for abortions in Kentucky’s Constitution.

November may seem far off, but we need YOU to join us as we kick off “Yes for Life Kentucky” TODAY, with a ProLife media blitz!

We are asking all of our KRTL Families, Friends, Supporters and Chapters to join us for the Yes for Life Social Media Blitz! Let’s blanket the Kentucky media with our message!

Please PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT for Kentucky’s ProLife Constitutional Amendment and encourage your friends and family to do the same. You can take part on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other social media platform. Below you’ll find a graphic and suggested text.

It is easy, all you have to do is post, share and repost— TODAY!

WHAT:

Yes for Life Social Media Blitz

WHEN:

Tuesday, June 7th, 2022

WHY:

Help every pro-life Kentuckian pledge their vote for Constitutional Amendment #2 - Yes for Life

HOW:

Post the social media content and graphic we’ve included below on Facebook and Twitter. You also can pull a graphic from the Yes for Life Facebook page.

Examples of what to post

Facebook:

• On November 8, 2022, I’m voting YES on Constitutional Amendment #2, the #YesforLife Amendment, to send a clear message: There is no right to an abortion or the funding for abortions in #Kentucky’s Constitution.
• Pledge your YES vote now on the Yes for Life site.
• This November, we can write our #prolife values into #Kentucky’s Constitution. Vote YES on Constitutional Amendment #2, the #YesforLife Amendment, to stand for the sanctity of all life. Pledge your YES vote for #YesforLifeKY: https://www.yesforlifeky.com/
• Will you join me in voting YES for Life on November 8, 2022? By voting YES on Constitutional Amendment #2, the #YesforLife Amendment, we can make our #Kentucky Constitution reflect our bold #prolife values. Pledge your vote today: https://www.yesforlifeky.com/

Twitter:

• On November 8, 2022, I’m voting YES on Constitutional Amendment #2, the #YesforLife Amendment, to send a clear message: There is no right to an abortion or the funding for abortions in #Kentucky’s most sacred document.
• Pledge your YES vote now on the Yes for Life site.
• Will you join me in voting YES for Life on November 8, 2022? By voting YES on Constitutional Amendment #2, the Yes for Life Amendment, we can make our KY Constitution reflect our bold #prolife values. Pledge your vote today: https://www.yesforlifeky.com/
• KYians have stood up for the sanctity of life in their homes, churches & communities. On November 8, 2022, we can protect life at the ballot box! Vote YES on Constitutional Amendment #2 to say KY’s Constitution does NOT protect the right to an abortion. https://www.yesforlifeky.com/

Thank you in advance for your commitment to protecting future generations!

UPDATE on August 21, 2021

Images from the Press Conference | Yes for Life Facebook Video | Yes for Life on TARC! | WLKY TV reports | News Enterprise reports

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Original post

Louisville, KY. (August 20, 2021)

The Yes for Life Alliance launched its campaign today to pass a prolife Constitutional Amendment affirming there is no right to an abortion or the funding of abortions in Kentucky. Yes for Life Chair Addia Wuchner and Vice Chair Angela Minter hosted a press conference at the Kentucky State Fair to introduce the new organization alongside Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles.

“Kentuckians of faith and conscience have the incredible opportunity to make our Constitution reflect our prolife values with their vote on November 8, 2022,” said Wuchner. “The Yes for Life Alliance will encourage voters across the Commonwealth to use their ballot to stand up for the most vulnerable Kentuckians— our unborn children. We are so grateful to the courageous leaders in the General Assembly who passed legislation and gave us this chance to be clear that there is no right to an abortion or the funding for abortion in Kentucky.”

In March, the Kentucky General Assembly passed HB 91, which provided for the Yes for Life Constitutional Amendment to appear on the November 2022 ballot. The Amendment, if ratified, will prevent state judges from reading abortion rights into the Constitution and asserting their own politics over the will of the people.

“The Yes for Life Constitutional Amendment is the final piece of the puzzle to make Kentucky a prolife state,” said Minter. “We ask for the prayers and support of all Kentuckians as we embark on this journey to strengthen our Constitution. We will work in every corner of our Commonwealth, urging everyone to vote Yes for Life. Together, we can end the culture of death and make Kentucky lead the nation in defending the defenseless.”

“Kentuckians are proud to be prolife and the Yes for Life amendment is one more way they can stand up for the dignity of life,” Commissioner Quarles said. “As a former legislator with a strong prolife voting record, I am proud to be here today to help spread an important message across the commonwealth: on November 8, 2022, Kentuckians can cast one of the most important votes of their lives and say Yes for Life at the ballot box.”

Kentucky State Treasurer Allison Ball shared a video endorsing Yes for Life.

Yes for Life Founding Members include Kentucky Right to Life, Sisters for Life, The Family Foundation, the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, the Kentucky Baptist Convention and the Commonwealth Policy Center.

For more information on the Yes for Life Alliance, please visit YesforLifeKY.com and follow the organization’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube pages.