A Kentucky Senate committee overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment on Monday that would declare that there is no right to abortion in the state. The bill, HB 91, passed the State and Local Government Committee with a vote of 9-1 and now heads to the Senate floor for consideration.
As Live Action News previously reported, the amendment would simply add one sentence to the state’s constitution, reading, “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 measure easily passed in the House last month.
Kentucky Today reports that as the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Joseph Fischer spoke before the Senate committee in defense of his bill. “There is no explicit right to abortion in our Kentucky Constitution right now. HB 91 simply assures that no Kentucky court will ever be able to fashion an implicit right to abortion from the language of our state Constitution. There will be no Roe v. Wade decision in Kentucky,” he said.
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Legislators in the state are keen to add the language to the constitution in order to close any loopholes. Fischer testified that this is important because there have been instances elsewhere where abortion advocates have been able to get the courts to say that their state’s constitution gave an implicit right to abortion.
Kentucky Right to Life executive director Addia Wuchner also praised the amendment. “It ensures that the lawmakers of this commonwealth are who make the laws that protect the lives of women and their informed consent, as you have passed laws in the past,” she testified. “It protects the rights of the unborn, the human rights of the child, and assures that right and the right to pass those laws are with you, the duly elected people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”
Should the bill pass in the Senate, it will then make its way to the ballot for voters to decide in a statewide referendum.
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