Republican State Rep. Joe Fischer has amended a bill expanding domestic violence protections to include language further limiting abortions.
The amendment is in line with a national trend. Last year alone, 22 states passed 70 new provisions that introduced new restrictions to abortion access. Fischer’s initiative would ban abortions after 20 weeks, a marker after which the lawmaker says fetuses can feel pain.
Scientists have largely expressed skepticism about that claim, but Fischer maintains that abortions before that point constitute a form of “domestic violence.”
House Speaker Greg Stumbo told WUKY the connection appears tenuous.
"I haven't looked at them that closely, but it would be my speculation that [the amendment] is probably not germane," he said Tuesday.
The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on a similar measure out of Arizona Monday by declining to hear the case, a move that left a previous ruling that it was unconstitutional intact.
Kentucky law currently prohibits abortions after 22 weeks.
A separate bill, House Bill 184 would require a physician performing abortions to meet in person with a patient at least 24 hours before the scheduled procedure to answer patient questions about inform the patient of ultrasound imaging opportunities.
