Kentucky Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed a bill that would have required abortionists to provide life-saving medical care to a baby who survived a botched abortion.
In a veto message Friday regarding Senate Bill 9, Beshear said other Born Alive bills “have been struck down as unconstitutional in the majority of states in America when challenged.”
“During this worldwide health pandemic, it is simply not the time for a divisive set of lawsuits that reduce our unity and our focus on defeating the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and restarting our economy,” he added.
The governor said that “existing Kentucky law already fully protects children from being denied life-saving medical care and treatment when they are born.”
The legislation also included a measure that would have given Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron power to regulate abortion clinics in the state and ban the elective procedure in order to preserve personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers treating those suffering from the infection caused by the coronavirus from China.
Cameron said he was supporting a statewide ban on elective abortions “to further the mandated policy of social distancing and to help conserve medical resources for use in fighting COVID-19.”
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana and Kentucky (PPAIK) praised Beshear for vetoing the legislation, calling its provisions “unnecessary restrictions” and “dangerous.”
“Not only is this bill unnecessary, it is a blatant display of anti-abortion politics by extremists in the Kentucky General Assembly,” said Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky State Director for PPAIK.
“A global pandemic is not the time to play political games with people’s lives,” she added. “This veto by the governor shows true leadership in a time when it is needed most.”
PPAIK said Senate Bill 9 is “a blatant power grab” that “was designed to push misinformation, and went one step further in seeking to completely ban abortion.”