By Dave Andrusko
When the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit yesterday challenging Kentucky’s new ultrasound law, pro-life Gov. Matt Bevin’s response to WHAS-AM host Terry Meiners said it all:
“It’s a shocker that the ACLU is suing someone,” said Bevin, a Republican and abortion opponent. “We anticipated as much. That’s what they do. It’s what liberals always do when they don’t like something, they sue.”
Arguing HB2 was “unconstitutional and unenforceable,” the ACLU filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court “on behalf of the state’s sole abortion provider, EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville, and three physicians who provide abortions,” reported Deborah Yetter of the (Louisville) Courier-Journal.
“Two other clinics, EMW in Lexington and Planned Parenthood in Louisville, suspended abortions last year after the Bevin administration sued them, alleging they were operating without proper state licensure. Those legal disputes are pending.”
Kentucky’s pro-life state House and Senate also passed SB5, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. “Bevin also signed it into law and said in Monday’s radio interview that he strongly supports the ban,” Yetter reported.
“I personally believe that it’s inappropriate to kill human beings that are innocent,” Bevin said.
The ACLU said it is analyzing that law as well.
Ingrid Duran, NRLC director of State Legislation, told NRL News Today
Kentucky took an important step in the right direction in order to protect mothers and their unborn children by enacting the ultrasound law and the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection act. There is nothing unconstitutional about giving mothers all of the information they deserve prior to making such a life-and-death decision. There is also nothing unconstitutional about protecting unborn babies that are capable of feeling pain from abortion.
The ACLU is clearly operating on the side of fear because they’re aware of the positive impacts these laws have for mothers and unborn children.
Swift passage of SB5 and HB2 came after pro-life Republicans, already in control of the state Senate, won a majority in the state House where pro-life measures had previously been bottled up by Democrats under the leadership of outgoing Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo.
Last Saturday, the House approved SB5 by 79-15. The bill allows exceptions if an abortion is necessary to save a woman’s life or prevent substantial, irreversible harm to any of her major bodily functions.
SB5, like the laws in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, says you cannot abort a child capable of experiencing pain, a capacity that medical science has demonstrated takes place no later than at 20 weeks.
Both laws contain language that made them effective immediately.
Twenty-five states have enacted various kinds of ultrasound laws. The common denominator is that an abortion-minded woman is given the opportunity to view the ultrasound of her unborn child.
You can view a chart with explanations at www.nrlc.org/uploads/stateleg/UltrasoundFactsheet.pdf.