Republican lawmaker wants Kentucky voters to cast a ballot on abortion amendment — again

Roughly three months after voters rejected a near-identical measure to amend the Kentucky Constitution to make clear it does not contain a protected right to abortion, a Kentucky Republican has filed another bill to that end.

Senate Bill 118, filed Tuesday afternoon by Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Crofton, proposes adding these words to the Kentucky Constitution: “Nothing in this constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of abortion. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including but not limited to circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother.”

Amending the Kentucky Constitution requires voter approval — something that Republicans couldn’t muster in November, when a very similar, largely GOP-backed bill asked Kentuckians virtually the same question in Amendment 2: “Are you in favor of amendment the Constitution of Kentucky . . . 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.”

Voters rejected Amendment 2 on the heels of Roe v. Wade being overturned and Kentucky’s laws criminalizing abortion taking effect.

Television ads from Protect Kentucky Access, the group working to defeat the proposed change, at times conflated Amendment 2 with a ban on abortion without exceptions — a point that drew sharp criticism from Republicans, including Westerfield, who accused the group of purposely misleading voters.

Frustration over this “confusion” was, in part, the impetus for including the second sentence in his amendment proposal, Westerfield said Tuesday. That sentence, clarifying that voters “retain the right” to “enact, amend, or repeal” abortion laws, was intended to clarify that a constitutional change to this effect would not preclude lawmakers from repealing restrictive abortion laws in the future.

Compared with Amendment 2, which was the product of a 2021 law, “this proposed amendment states it much more clearly to me,” Westerfield said.

If Amendment 2 had passed, it would not have equaled an abortion ban. But it would’ve made it much harder to constitutionally challenge such a restriction in courts. Kentucky’s two outpatient abortion clinics are currently suing the state, arguing that two laws banning abortion are unconstitutional. The case is currently before the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Abortion, meanwhile, remains illegal and criminalized in Kentucky. When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, a trigger law banning abortion except in medical emergencies and a fetal heartbeat law banning abortion after fetal cardiac activity was detected, both took concurrent effect. It is currently a felony for Kentucky health care providers to provide pregnancy terminations in violation with those laws.

Doctors have since warned lawmakers that the broad scope of both laws harm pregnant patients. Last week, a Herald-Leader report detailed how both abortion bans interfere with doctors’ ability to treat nonviable pregnancies with medically-recommended terminations, and in doing so, exposes pregnant patients to unnecessary and dangerous health risks.

Westerfield said Tuesday afternoon he knows Republican leadership isn’t keen on passing any constitutional amendments this session — those questions can only be put to voters on even-yeared ballots.

“I filed the bill on the chance that leadership is willing to advance a constitutional amendment,” he said. “It may not go anywhere, but I wanted to stake my claim and make sure that the pro-life community knew there was still a desire to protect unborn life.”

Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said Tuesday that the “plan is not to pass any constitutional amendments this year.”

“That’s the plan right now,” Thayer said. “We can always change our minds, but that’s not something being discussed right now.”

Herald-Leader writer Austin Horn contributed to this report.