By Dave Andrusko
By a vote of 8-2, Kentucky’s Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday passed a measure that would lower the maximum age an abortion can be performed from 20 weeks down to 15 weeks.
Amidst criticism that the bill, SB 321, is not necessary, sponsor Sen. Max Wise said passage is important “because it mirrors a Mississippi law that is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court in a challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision establishing abortion as a constitutional right,” reported Deborah Yetter, Louisville Courier Journal. Sen. Wise said, “If the Supreme Court upholds Mississippi’s law, we would have a law in place.”
Yetter quoted two other legislative proponents:
“I vote aye to protect the rights of the unborn, and I make no apologies for that,” said Sen. Danny Carroll.
And Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Hopkinsville, the committee chairman, said he finds abortion for “convenience and ease” disturbing.
“It’s heartbreaking and gut-wrenching because I know a human life is killed in the process,” he said.
Addia Wuchner, executive director of Kentucky Right to Life, hailed the bill “as another step forward as we move forward in protecting those who do not have a voice for themselves, Kentucky’s unborn children.”
“Wuchner also said medical science has advanced since Roe v. Wade and more is known about fetal development and viability earlier in a pregnancy,” Yetter wrote.
Kentucky‘s law currently protects unborn children who are capable of feeling pain by prohibiting abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. “Two Kentucky laws ban abortion at six and 14 weeks but currently are stalled by legal challenges.” Yetter wrote.