Kentucky lawmaker introduces bill to restore reproductive care, protect women from prosecution

KENTUCKY (FOX 56) — Kentucky House Democratic Caucus Whip Lindsey Burke said she’s following through with her promises, fighting to restore reproductive health care access in the commonwealth.

“This summer will mark the third anniversary since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and a state trigger law effectively outlawed abortion in Kentucky,” Rep. Burke of Lexington said. “During this time, countless women have suffered significantly. Some have either died or been severely injured as a direct result of these actions, while all women have seen a cloud descend over our reproductive care. Women deserve better. That’s why I have filed these bills before and why I am filing them again today.”

Burke calls House Bill 419 “North Star,” saying it would guide abortion care back to the years following the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling.

“For most of my life, this care and access were seen by many Kentuckians as normal and just another facet of healthcare,” she said. “Returning us to that time is not a radical idea, no matter how much others might say otherwise.”

The next filing Burke calls the “Shield Bill.”

House Bill 418 would block prosecutors from charging anyone involved when a woman travels to other states for reproductive care services not legally available in Kentucky.

“If we cannot restore abortion care as it was, then at the very least we must better protect those who are forced to go elsewhere. It is no one’s business what they do in this regard,” Burke said.

She emphasized that the General Assembly needs to act now, as threats to reproductive health care access are “growing” on a federal level.

“I believe a majority of Americans have made their views clear, and that includes Kentuckians in 2022’s vote against an anti-abortion amendment,” Burke said. “We need to stop politicizing health care because it’s causing so much harm.”

Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates backs Burke’s legislation, calling the bills a “fierce defense of patients, providers, and the sanctity of private medical information.”

“We refuse to sit silently as politicians dictate personal health care decisions and chip away at our basic freedoms,” said Tamarra Wieder, the Kentucky State Director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. “Representative Burke’s bills are the first bold actions to reclaim agency ripped from us by the Dobbs decision and the abortion ban put in place by the Kentucky supermajority. At a moment when new federal threats could lock in even more restrictions on crucial reproductive care, this legislation acts as a fierce defense of patients, providers, and the sanctity of private medical information. Now more than ever, Kentucky must rise to protect people’s right to decide what’s best for their own bodies and lives.”