KY abortion amendment opponents raise millions — five times as much as supporters

A group opposing a ballot question to eliminate abortion as a constitutionally protected right has amassed more than $3 million ahead of the high-stakes referendum that will likely foretell the future of abortion access in Kentucky.

Abortion-rights group Protect Kentucky Access had raised more than $3 million by October 12, according to campaign finance reports filed Wednesday evening. More than $1.25 million of PKA’s money was raised in the last 30 days. The group urging a “no” vote on Constitutional Amendment No. 2, has raised roughly five-times as much as Yes for Life.

PKA’s earnings in 2022 have been buttressed by hefty donations from national groups, including Planned Parenthood and its affiliates, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union. Combined in 2022, those organizations fronted more than $1 million.

Major donations this reporting cycle include $250,000 from former New York City Mayor and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg, $500,000 from Advocacy Action Fund, Inc.,and $125,000 from Families United for Freedom. Dozens of individuals donated $100 to $1,000, including close to 40 people who list themselves as physicians, who gave more than $15,000, collectively.

So far in 2022, roughly 90 doctors (most of whom are licensed in Kentucky) have donated $53,000 to Protect Kentucky Access.

Yes for Life, which supports passage of the constitutional amendment, has raised a total $620,000. The bulk of Yes for Life’s donations have come from religiously-affiliated groups, including the Kentucky Baptist Convention and the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, and the Family Foundation of Kentucky. In the last month, alone, the Kentucky Baptist Convention has donated $206,000. Ryan Quarles, Kentucky’s Agriculture Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate, gave $250.

Though campaign funding doesn’t guarantee voter turnout, in the final three-week sprint toward election day, opponents of the abortion amendment have the clear edge in a state whose Republican-controlled General Assembly has pushed hard to eliminate access to the medical procedure.

The proposed amendment, requiring a “yes” or “no” vote, will ask voters on November 8: “Are you in favor of amending the Constitution of Kentucky by creating a new Section of the Constitution . . . to state as follows: to protect human life, nothing in this constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion?”

If the “yes” votes prevail and the constitution is changed, it would not equal an abortion ban. But if Kentucky’s laws restricting abortion are legally challenged, courts could not interpret a right to abortion as existing within the constitution, because the amendment plainly states it is not a protected right. The General Assembly, then, would become the sole arbiter of state laws and regulations impacting abortion access.

In late September, Protect Kentucky Access bought airtime on television stations across the state and launched its first television ad. Showing testimonial from a Kentucky woman with a nonviable pregnancy, it focused on the lack of medical exceptions in the proposed constitutional amendment. This week, the campaign aired its second.

This story may be updated.