Last-ditch Democrat-led effort to add abortion exceptions fails in KY Senate

A Democrat who filed a bill to add exceptions for rape and incest to Kentucky’s strict abortion law unsuccessfully tried to get his bill heard Monday by accusing Republican leadership of violating the Senate rules.

Sen. David Yates, D-Louisville, filed what’s known as a discharge petition Friday, the second-to-last-day of the session, because one of his bills, Senate Bill 99, never received a committee assignment.

This inaction, Yates told senators Monday, was a violation of the Senate rules, which requires bills to be assigned to a committee within five days of being filed.

“I would ask you to follow the rules,” Yates said on the Senate floor Monday. “This is a very important precedent. I would ask you to follow the rules. As a member of the minority, we depend on those rules. The rules is what makes this legislative body tick.”

Less than a week into the General Assembly’s regular session in January, Yates filed SB 99, also known as Hadley’s Law, to add exceptions for rape, incest and nonviable pregnancies to Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban.

Named for Hadley Duvall, a college senior who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather at age 12, Yates’ bill would broaden the statewide ban that currently only allows for abortion in cases of medical emergencies that threaten a pregnant person’s life.

Survivors of rape and incest who get pregnant cannot legally get abortions in Kentucky under the current law, and neither can women whose pregnancies are diagnosed with fetal anomalies incompatible with life, often referred to as nonviable.

But Yates’ bill, filed three months ago, never received a committee assignment. It’s a move, he said, that is a violation of the Senate Rules, pushing him on Friday to file a discharge petition in an attempt to get the bill heard on the Senate floor on the final day of session.

“We have one of the most extreme abortion bans in the entire country,” Yates said last week. “This bill would create very limited exceptions to Kentucky’s complete abortion ban: to allow some level of choice for survivors of rape and incest and nonviable pregnancies for women with serious health complications.”

Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer called Yates’ actions a “political stunt on the last day of the legislative session.”

“Not once during this session did (Yates) ever ask the committee on committees, which he’s a member of, to assign the bill,” Thayer said Monday, with hours left in the session.

Minority Whip Yates’ bill is one of only two, out of 382 total bills filed in the Senate this session, that has yet to receive a committee assignment.

Only one other Senate bill did not receive a Senate committee assignment by the end of the session: the C.R.O.W.N. Act from Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, which would have outlawed discrimination on the basis of a hairstyle historically associated with a person’s race.

This runs afoul of Senate Rules and the Kentucky Constitution, Yates said in a news conference Thursday afternoon and in a phone call with the Herald-Leader Friday morning.

Rule 48 of the Senate Rules makes clear that all bills must be assigned to a committee within five days of being introduced. Hadley’s Law has not been assigned to committee for more than three months. It’s common for bills, especially those filed by the minority party, not to receive a committee hearing.

But it is unusual for a bill not to receive a committee assignment in the Senate.

Nonetheless, Senate President Pro Tempore David Givens, R-Greensburg, ruled against Yates’ motion.

Yates promptly appealed, but his appeal was voted down, 27-8, with Republicans Adrienne Southworth of Lawrenceburg and Chris McDaniel of Taylor Mill siding with Democrats.

Southworth said it was a matter of following the rules, and the rules, “black and white,” say a bill must be assigned a committee within five days of being filed, and a body must give a discharge petition a hearing the day after said petition was filed.

“I’m not sure how we’ve lost track of the English language, but these rules have been written clear enough to me,” Southworth said. “Are we going to follow our rules or not?”

A rejection of Yates’ discharge petition means the General Assembly will end another regular session without weighing in on whether to add exceptions to Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban, two years after the medical procedure was first banned.

Two bills adding exceptions were filed this session: The first from Yates and the second — House Bill 711 — from Rep. Ken Fleming, R-Louisville. It was never heard in committee.

Others sought to reinstate broader abortion access, like three bills filed by Rep. Lindsey Burke, D-Lexington, to repeal the trigger law banning abortion except in medical emergencies and codify protections for women who travel out of state to get an abortion. None were given a committee hearing.

Beyond the violation of Senate rules, Yates said he wanted to highlight how “wrong” and “cruel” Kentucky’s restrictive abortion bans are.

As the Herald-Leader previously reported, Kentucky’s existing abortion laws have forced pregnant women who need medically-recommended terminations — like those carrying a fetus with anencephaly, where the fetal brain and skull do not fully develop — to seek care in other states where it’s legal.

Unless a pregnancy conceived from rape threatens a woman’s health, women like Duvall are also unable to legally get an abortion in Kentucky.

“We can go on with the shock and awe of these horrific cases, but they are real cases,” Yates said.

“These people are real, and it’s actually wrong for the state of Kentucky to take away any level of choice over what happens next with their bodies.”