KY Democrats walk out over bill urging women with nonviable pregnancies not to get abortions

Democrats walked out of a legislative committee meeting Thursday in protest of a Republican-sponsored bill aimed at encouraging women with nonviable pregnancies not to terminate those pregnancies, but instead carry them to term.

Under House Bill 467, or the “Love Them Both Part II Act” from Rep. Nancy Tate, R-Brandenburg, all hospitals, birthing centers, maternal fetal medicine providers and midwives “shall provide or make referrals to a perinatal palliative care program, or perinatal palliative care support services” if one of their patient’s pregnancies is nonviable.

This program, according to Tate and the bill language, is to offer “alternatives to pregnancy termination.”

Just as Tate was approaching the table during the House Standing Committee on Health Services meeting to introduce her bill, Democratic Reps. Lindsey Burke, Adrielle Camuel and Rachel Roarx stood up and quietly walked out.

In the hallway, Burke said she opposes the bill because it “specifically calls out women who are choosing to terminate a pregnancy and discourages that. Everything in her bill is available to suffering parents. When you experience this, the hospital offers services just like the ones she proposed, so she’s not giving us anything new, she’s just taking away from what we already have.”

Burke said the bill was “an insult to grieving parents everywhere” and added, “we have a duty today to step up, step out and refresh the narrative.”

Shortly after, the bill passed with full Republican support. As he was casting his vote in favor of the bill, Committee Vice Chair Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester said, “I’d like everyone to take notice: my colleagues on the Democratic side all got up and left. That’s an atrocity, because when it comes to these types of issues, I want folks to understand we’re just protecting the life and health of these children.”

To the point of Democrats protesting her bill, Tate said, “I think this is a very compassionate piece of legislation that gives us the opportunity to support women and their families physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally and financially.”

A nonviable pregnancy is one in which the fetus is diagnosed with a condition or anomaly that will lead to their death, either in utero or shortly after birth. In these situations, as the Herald-Leader has reported, termination — by way of an abortion or early induction, for example — is one of the handful of options considered the standard of care health care providers present to patients with nonviable pregnancies.

Palliative care for babies born with fatal conditions already exists in hospitals across Kentucky, according to doctors who’ve spoken with the Herald-Leader, though not all hospitals have a formalized program like the one Tate’s bill calls for.

Abigail Brown, who testified in favor of the bill Thursday, is a genetic counselor at one of those programs, Footprints Perinatal Palliative Care, part of St. Elizabeth HealthCare in Edgewood. She said, “our goal with the program is to offer continuous support and anticipatory guidance to families . . . in order to honor and celebrate their baby in a way that is meaningful to them.”

Public and private insurers would be required to pay for perinatal palliative care programs under the bill. Those programs would include counseling and emotional support, and “care and specialized support through the remainder of the pregnancy, birth, the newborn period and death.”

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The intention behind the bill, as stated in the language, is to provide an alternative to abortion, considering “the psychological and faith challenges associated with post-termination.”

“Perinatal palliative care offers alternatives for pregnant women and birth fathers faced with nonviable pregnancies or infants whose diagnoses suggest a brief life after birth, recognizing the value and dignity of these babies,” the bill states. This type of care provides an alternative that’s “marked by dignity, compassion and love.”

Speaking in favor of the bill, Kentucky Right to Live Executive Director Addia Wuchner said the bill would add formalized perinatal palliative programs at hospitals across Kentucky, “You can’t say goodbye until you say hello.”

But opponents said the bill is yet another way Republicans are attempting to persuade women away from evidence-based health care options to pregnant women already in emotionally vulnerable positions in a state that has continued to enforce a near-total abortion ban.

Kentucky’s near-total ban on abortion has been in effect for nearly two years. The law only legally permits abortion in medical emergencies that threaten a person’s life. Even in cases of nonviable pregnancies, if there’s still a fetal heartbeat, a doctor cannot lawfully provide an abortion without risking a felony charge.

As the Herald-Leader previously reported, the lack of exceptions in Kentucky’s current abortion bans have forced pregnant women who need medically-recommended terminations — like those carrying a fetus with anencephaly, where the fetal brain and skull do not fully develop — to seek care outside of the state.

Last week, a group of nearly 300 Kentucky doctors signed a letter asking lawmakers to repeal its abortion bans, arguing that such laws force them to compromise the standard of care they’re able to provide to patients.

“This is a call to action,” Dr. Marjorie Fitzgerald said. “Abortion bans do nothing to protect patients’ rights or privacy. We call on legislators to listen to physicians and leading health care organizations to repeal the ban on abortion.”

Dr. Virginia Stokes, an OBGYN in Louisville, said the wholesale ban does not account for the nuanced risks that may necessitate termination.

Pregnancy complications that compromise a fetus’ ability to survive outside the uterus “occur with remarkable frequency,” she said.

But even in cases of nonviable pregnancies, providers cannot lawfully terminate a pregnancy as long as there is cardiac activity. “Failure to provide that standard treatment risks the patient’s life,” Stokes said.

A Republican and a Democrat have filed bills this session to add rape and incest exceptions to the law, as well as exceptions for nonviable pregnancies. Tate has publicly opposed adding rape and incest exceptions to Kentucky’s ban.

As co-chair of the General Assembly’s Pro-Life Caucus, Tate has had a hand in most bills passed into law in recent years that restrict, regulate or ban abortion in Kentucky, including the trigger law passed in 2019 and made enforceable with the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Earlier this session, Tate told the Herald-Leader, “I’m really excited about the fact that there’s been no legal abortion in the commonwealth of Kentucky since August of 2022.”