By Dave Andrusko
Kentucky State Sen. Whitney Westerfield
Currently, there are 24 states with ultrasound laws on the books. They vary according to various criteria but all provide a woman considering an abortion information about her unborn child’s true humanity,
And if the Kentucky House follows the lead of the Kentucky Senate, the Bluegrass State will become #25.
Two weeks ago, NRL News Today reported that the Senate Committee on Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection had voted 11 to 1 to advance a measure requiring an ultrasound prior to an abortion and the abortionist to describe what is seen on that ultrasound.
Yesterday the full Senate overwhelmingly passed SB 152 on a vote of 32-4. The 4 nays were cast by Democrats.
In explaining yesterday’s vote, the Louisville Courier-Journal’s Tom Luftus reported
Sen. Whitney Westerfield, a Hopkinsville Republican who sponsors the bill, told senators Monday he was inspired to file the bill by a constituent and friend who many years ago sought to have an abortion and was denied her request to see an ultrasound by a nurse who proceeded with the abortion.
“She regrets to this day not being able to see it —knowing now, feeling certain, that had she been able to see it, had she been allowed to see it — she wouldn’t have made the decision that she did,” Westerfield said.
Opponents recycled the usual interference-with-doctor-patient-relationship argument, including this unintentionally revealing comment from Derek Selznick, the Reproductive Freedom Project director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, who said the bill leaves “no room for a doctor to actually treat her patient as a human being.”
Luftus reiterated a political reality NRL News Today has previously addressed which helped explain why Senate Bill 4 passed and why SB 152 may as well:
Abortion bills have been routinely blocked in recent past sessions in the Kentucky House where Democrats are in the majority. But that majority is a narrower this year — 50 Democrats to 46 Republicans with four vacant seats to be filled in special elections March 8.