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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Kentucky Governor Expected to Sign Abortion Bills

A controversial bill that requires an ultrasound and fetal-heartbeat monitoring before a woman can have an abortion was approved by Kentucky lawmakers on Saturday and awaits the governor’s signature.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (CN) – A controversial bill that requires an ultrasound and fetal-heartbeat monitoring before a woman can have an abortion was approved by Kentucky lawmakers on Saturday and awaits the governor’s signature.

Republican Gov. Matt Bevin is expected to sign the bill into law on Monday, along with six other pieces of legislation that were passed during a Saturday session.

Included are a proposed law that bans abortions at or beyond 20 weeks and several labor measures that will ban mandatory union dues and repeal the state’s prevailing wage law.

The 20-week abortion ban does not contain exceptions for cases of rape or incest, but it would not apply when an abortion is required to save the mother’s life or prevent serious harm to her.

Bevin called the forthcoming laws “generationally changing bills,” and told reporters he will hold signing ceremonies this week.

House Bill 2 – which enacts mandatory ultrasounds before abortions – passed in the Kentucky House by an 83-12 vote and in the Senate by a vote of 32-5.

Kentucky became a fully red state following the 2016 election, when Republicans gained control of the House for the first time in over a century.

The Bluegrass State’s 20-week abortion ban follows an identical measure approved in Ohio last month. Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed the ban but vetoed stricter provisions in a separate bill that would have barred abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat.

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Categories / Government, Health

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