Kentucky lawmakers override governor veto, pass clarifications to pro-life law

Kentucky’s General Assembly voted on Thursday to override Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill specifying medical situations in which it is permissible under the state’s pro-life law for doctors to separate a woman from her unborn child. The Kentucky House of Representatives voted 77-20 to override Beshear’s Tuesday veto, and the state Senate did the same in a 31-7 vote. Kentucky law protects babies from abortion in all circumstances, unless a mother’s life is in danger or one of her essential organs is at risk. Under those exceptions, the law classifies the procedure not as an abortion, but as a physical separation of the mother from her unborn child. Both chambers approved HB 90 about two weeks ago to specify several medical exceptions that would fall under that rubric and permit a separation. Pro-life advocates insist those exceptions were already covered under the state’s laws protecting unborn babies from abortion, and HB 90 merely specifies them.

What reasons did Beshear give for vetoing the bill? The governor argued that the bill did not include an exhaustive list of emergency situations for which a woman and her unborn child would need to be separated. The bill stopped doctors from giving pregnant women necessary treatments until they are in an emergency state from bleeding or sepsis, he said. He also argued that the law undermined medical expertise because the number of emergency situations that could arise in a medical facility could not be contained in a finite list. Pro-life advocates insist that the state’s current laws already allow doctors to separate a woman from her unborn child in any situation that threatens the mother’s life.

Dig deeper: Read my previous report on the bill’s first passage by legislators and its first veto from Beshear for more background.