Legislation introduced Tuesday would give prosecutors the ability to charge anyone who obtains or performs an abortion with homicide under Kentucky state law, according to the bill.
Currently, abortion is illegal in Kentucky after the state’s trigger law, which banned abortions except to protect the life of the mother and went into effect in 2022 as a result of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Republican state Rep. Emily Callaway introduced H.B. 300 Tuesday, which would expand the current law and allow prosecutors to charge anyone who performs an abortion or receives one with homicide. (RELATED: Dem North Carolina AG Refuses To Defend State Law Restricting Abortion Pill Access)
“Unless specifically provided otherwise, in a prosecution under this chapter where the victim is an unborn child, enforcement shall be subject to the same legal principles as would apply to the homicide of a person who had been born alive, including presumptions, defenses, justifications, laws of parties, immunities, and clemencies,” the bill reads.
Anti-abortion activists hold signs outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 24, 2022. (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Callaway’s bill excludes situations where a doctor is trying to prevent the death of the mother, provided the doctor uses “all reasonable alternatives to save the life of the unborn child.” Additionally, miscarriages cannot “be construed to allow for prosecution.”
Callaway’s Republican colleagues have not expressed support for her proposed legislation, according to the Courier Journal. Republican Kentucky House Speaker David Osborne said that the state house had never attempted to push pro-life legislation that did not have some “exceptions.”
“We are aware of Rep. Emily Callaway’s bill,” Osborne told the Courier Journal. “However, in the history of our commonwealth, the Kentucky General Assembly has never passed a pro-life measure that did not take into consideration the necessity for any exceptions, nor has this House Majority Caucus ever contemplated doing so.”
Callaway and Obsborne did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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