A new battle related to abortion in Kentucky heats up after fetal heartbeats

FRANKFORT, Ky.- Already bogged down in three lawsuits for abortion restrictions, Kentucky lawmakers are stepping up the stakes with a new bill prohibiting most abortions once the fetal heart rate is detected.

At the opening of a new legislative session, the measure appears to be on the fast track in the Republican-dominated Senate. The American Civil Liberties Union, the state's opponent in ongoing court battles, warned that the bill on heartbeats would ban most abortions in Kentucky and immediately trigger a court challenge. day after the measure was introduced by lawmakers. "It's certainly the most flagrant attempt to tackle Roe against Wade. It's extreme. Again, anti-abortion politicians are trying to push abortion out of the reach of women in this state. "

The Kentucky bill is at odds with the legal standard established by the Supreme Court in the Roe v. Wade judgment of 1973, which prohibits states from banning abortion before viability.But the Kentucky proposal is part of a series of measures introduced by opponents to Abortion who hope the Supreme Court will be more receptive to the limitation of the right to abortion now that Justice Anthony Kennedy, a key vote to preserve the right to abortion, has retired

Kennedy was replaced by Judge Brett Kavanaugh Although Kavanaugh's record of abortion is limited, he voted as a Judge at the Federal Court of Appeal in 2017 in favor of the postponement of an abortion for a teenager immigrant pregnant under Federal retention.

In Iowa, a law on heartbeats was temporarily blocked while the judge determines if it is unconstitutional. The North Dakota Heartbeat Act was declared unconstitutional and the US Supreme Court refused to review lower court decisions.

The effort to ban abortion in Kentucky once a fetal heartbeat has been detected – about six weeks into pregnancy – would have cemented Kentucky's reputation as "l & rsquo; One of the most hostile states "to abortion rights in the country, Amiri said by phone.

ACLU's lawyer added that the "vast majority" of abortions take place after six weeks of pregnancy and called an unconstitutional week of prohibition based on more than 40 years of jurisprudence.

"Most women do not even know that they are pregnant at six weeks," she said. "It is therefore a virtual ban on abortion."

The Heartbeat Bill was introduced on Tuesday, the opening day of the new Kentucky session, and one of the many sponsors was waiting for it. He will be heard in committee on Thursday. Senate Majority Leader, Damon Thayer, said he hoped the bill would be put to the Senate vote this week. Republican Matt Bevin, Republican Matt Bevin, is yet to adopt the House led by the GOP before going to the state governor, responsible for the fight against abortion.

After Friday, legislators return home for a break before meeting in early February for the rest of the year.

When he arrives at the governor's office, the bill on heartbeats will give Bevin the opportunity to associate his name with a measure imposing stricter limits on Abortion – a popular stance with its socially conservative base. Bevin, who announced his bid for re-election this year, saw his rating drop after criticizing officials who opposed his efforts to change the state's troubled public pension plans. Kentucky and two other states – Louisiana and Mississippi – will elect governors in 2019.

Embry said legal backlashes of the state in other abortion cases would not prevent Kentucky lawmakers to take even more restrictive measures.

"We have always done what we think is the right thing to do," he said.

Thayer said that the threat of a new lawsuit against the ACLU would not delay the bill in the Senate either: "It's up to us to make sure the laws, for to make politics, and that's what we're going to do. "

Kentucky Republican legislators have aggressively pushed bills to restrict the procedure since their consolidation of power over the legislature starting in 2017 although two abortion laws have been overturned in the courts. The administration of Bevin appealed in both cases.

One of these laws, promulgated in early 2017, required doctors to perform ultrasound scans and to show and describe the ultrasound images to pregnant women who could look away

. Bevin interpreted another law – passed some 20 years ago – that required a Kentucky abortion clinic to make written agreements with a hospital and ambulance service. in case of medical emergency. The actions of Bevin's administration had threatened the state's last abortion center, the EMW Women's Surgery Center in Louisville.

terminate pregnancies. The law remains suspended pending a decision of a federal judge.

Associated Press editors Adam Beam in Frankfort and Mark Sherman in Washington, DC, contributed to the writing of this report.