Kentucky House Bill 90 passes after a veto; affirms what is and isn’t an abortion in Kentucky law

Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

Kentucky House Bill 90, AN ACT relating to maternal health and declaring an emergency, was passed on March 27 with a veto override vote in both the House and Senate. The bill, lobbied on by Addia Wuchner, executive director, Kentucky Right to Life, included three main components.

“House Bill 90,” said Mrs. Wuchner, “is a comprehensive maternal health bill covering many aspects that concern maternal health in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

The three main components are the establishment of a licensing framework for free standing birthing centers in Kentucky, the providing of legal and clinical clarity for maternal health interventions that are not elective abortions and the expansion of access to perinatal palliative care.

A freestanding birthing center is described in the bill language as, “a safe and regulated alternative for maternity care, offering a medically directed care, midwifery-led model that emphasized holistic, patient-centered care.”

The establishment of freestanding birthing centers was the core of House Bill 90 before the two latter elements were introduced to the Bill framework.

The legal and clinical clarity for maternal healthcare helps physicians to distinguish comprehensive and appropriate medical care from elective abortion. It provides clarification on medical conditions that are not abortions and therefore are explicitly protected medical treatments under Kentucky law. Conditions such as miscarriage management, ectopic pregnancy treatment, molar pregnancy treatment, sepsis treatment, hemorrhage control and the management of fetal demise and stillbirth.

This portion of the Bill was cited by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear as his reason for vetoing the Bill. The primary concern of all those against House Bill 90 was the restrictive nature of an exhaustive list of treatable conditions under Kentucky law.

“No one, including legislators, can possibly create an exhaustive list of emergency situations that may occur in a hospital or medical facility. Gaps in the law are literally a matter of life and death,” said Governor Beshear in his veto.

Mrs. Wuchner refutes this claim, saying that it is necessary to define what is not an intentional abortion so that medical intervention is able to be exercised without fear of legal retribution.

“While we already define what is an abortion, let’s define what isn’t an abortion. We defined an outline that miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, septic miscarriage, are not abortions … The common language defining that these are not considered an elective abortion so that it was clear that women in Kentucky … have the care that they need,” said Mrs. Wuchner.

“Working with the medical community was to assure that there’s no question when it comes to the care that women in Kentucky are going to receive and deserve. We didn’t think that there was a question before, but since it kept being brought up that there were concerns, we wanted to eliminate those concerns,” said Mrs. Wuchner.

Representative Kim Moser, chairwomen of Health and Family Services committee, said, “This is about offering real options and real support when families face incredibly difficult medical news. House Bill 90 brings clarity when a maternal complication requires medically therapeutic treatment or critical life-saving interventions.”

Faye Roch, director of the Diocese of Covington ProLife Office, worked closely with Mrs. Wuchner, in listening sessions and advocating for pieces in the Bill.

“We’re working together to keep a close eye on everything that’s going on in Frankfort,” said Mrs. Wuchner.

When asked what she wanted Messenger readers to know about the Bill, Mrs. Wuchner said, “I hope that when they hear about this, I want them to be proud of Kentucky and proud of what the General Assembly gas done.”