2025 Kentucky Legislation Report

By Z. E. Kendall

Hello, friend!                                                                           24 March 2025

We at the Kentuckians for Freedom and associated organizations wanted to inform you about legislation introduced and passed in our state legislature this year. We have organized it by topic and with a conclusion at the finale.

Abortion (other than the Baby Olivia Act)

None of the legislation we actively opposed on the abortion topic passed. Those bills included Hadley’s Law (Senate Bill 35), House Bill 203, House Bill 419, and Senate Bill 115.

Hadley’s Law would have allowed abortion procedures in the cases of adult incest, rape, and fetal anomalies or deformities. Similarly, House Bill 203 introduced by Republicans would have established the rape, adult incest, and lethal fetal anomaly exceptions to permit abortion procedures. House Bill 419 would have established abortion as a fundamental right and would have removed all reporting requirements for who and where abortions occur. Senate Bill 115 would have provided a citizen-initiated ballot amendment process for Kentucky, which pro-choicers have wanted in order to pass a pro-abortion state constitutional amendment.

House Bill 316 and Senate Bill 108 were pro-life legislation aimed at combating the distribution of chemical abortion medications. They had some issues with them and did not pass. As discussed in one of our earlier meetings, that legislation would have treated a woman as a victim even if she requested abortion medication online without being coerced to do so, and it would have tacked on civil liabilities on top of the criminal liabilities on an issue that arguably should be just a criminal case. We do like some parts of that legislation, however, like making abortifacients into controlled substances.

Now, the state legislature passed House Bill 90 Senate Committee Substitute 1. That senate committee substitute of HB90 was the SB17 freestanding birthing centers bill[1] combined with the perinatal and palliative care bill combined with a redefinition of abortion in Kentucky to suit the sensibilities of Addia Wuchner and the Kentucky branch of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Addia Wuchner got the legislature to add in the perinatal care bill into House Bill 90 so that both the freestanding birthing center bill and the perinatal care bill passed at once. So, the perinatal and prenatal care bill applies to freestanding birthing centers, which improved the freestanding birthing center part of the legislation.[2]

Additionally, Addia Wuchner wanted to change the definition of abortion in Kentucky and made it more convoluted. The definition now also has a circular-reference, having the word "abortion-inducing" in the definition of "abortion," which is philosophically problematic if not legally problematic. It also makes treatment of ectopic pregnancies not qualify as an abortion rather than being an exception to permit abortion under the life of the mother exception to permit abortion. On the positive side, the new definition acknowledges several of the major life-threatening scenarios that pregnant women can face, such as sepsis and hemorrhage.

Zack Kendall's opinion on the new definition of abortion from Addia Wuchner and Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg of KY ACOG (KY American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists):

• The new definition keeps the “termination of pregnancy” wording, which Zack doesn’t like, because it’s not what the abortion debate is about to begin with and is not necessary to define an abortion even medically: abortion is about the death of the fetus or zygote, not about the cessation of the pregnancy, fundamentally speaking

• The new definition includes “clinically diagnosable” with pregnancy, meaning that if a pregnancy isn’t clinically diagnosable, then killing the fetus in the womb isn't (legally speaking) an abortion anymore in Kentucky; this could mean that taking the morning after pill in Kentucky cannot qualify as an abortion

• The new definition makes the treatment of an ectopic pregnancy not qualify as an abortion, instead of qualifying as fitting under the life of the mother exception to permit abortion (there’s no legal difference in effects here: it just makes some pro-lifers feel better)

• The new definition includes the word being defined within the definition itself, which makes the definition seem to be circular, in putting “abortion-inducing drug” in the definition of “abortion” itself, which isn't what we're supposed to do with legal and philosophical definitions

• The new definition seems wonky with its reference to “separating the pregnant woman from her unborn child” (Addia Wuchner addressed this complaint in committee, but it still seems like an aesthetically ugly way to word the text)

Most of what Addia Wuchner wants could have been accomplished by defining abortion as “an intentional act to kill a fetus or zygote within the uterus, indirectly or directly” and then listing out the medical conditions that qualify under the life of the mother exception to permit abortion. Instead, we got the listing of the medical conditions for the life of the mother exception[3] but also some wonky wording that might leave open a loophole for more real abortions to happen under rare circumstances, with the “clinically diagnosable” wording. (If a medical facility doesn’t have the means to test for a pregnancy, say, due to malfunctioning equipment or limited availability of testing supplies, then the pregnancy isn’t clinically diagnosable.)

Adoption:

Governor Andy Beshear signed into law two bills related to adoption. The first is Senate Bill 26, which requires that disabled people would not be discriminated against in trying to adopt a child.

The second is House Bill 164, Braylon’s Law, which allows people to legally adopt children who have already died, if the adoption process has already been started, with the child having been assigned to the home of the petitioner.

Agriculture:

They passed Senate Bill 28, which creates a new agricultural economic development program in the Kentucky Department of Agriculture for high-technology agricultural enterprises and for the creation of aviation fuel from agricultural businesses.

Governor Andy Beshear signed into law House Bill 391 (the Honey Bill) to increase the yearly amount of local honey sold from 150 gallons to 500 gallons before requiring a person to process the honey in a certified honey house.

Governor Beshear also signed into law House Bill 157, which will enable you to buy a “friend of Kentucky agriculture” special license plate if you so wish.

Artificial Intelligence:

The state legislature passed Senate Bill 4, which requires the Commonwealth Office of Technology to establish and implement policy standards for the use of artificial intelligence.

Baby Olivia Act (House Bill 397):

The Baby Olivia Act gained a bit of momentum but got stuck in the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee. Thanks to our efforts and efforts by the Family Foundation and Kentucky Right to Life, the Baby Olivia Act reached 28 total sponsors and cosponsors, and Jason Nemes cosponsored it last year but didn’t this year despite our supporters emailing him about it. It only had 8 cosponsors last year. The Baby Olivia Act had the most cosponsors of any bill in the education committee in 2025.

The Baby Olivia Act would have put a video depicting the development of a baby in the womb into school health class, to cultivate a culture of life in the next generation. Tennessee already has the Baby Olivia Act in force.

Last year, the legislation passed through the Health Services Committee, was recommitted to the Rules Committee instead of put up for a vote, and then handed off to the Appropriations and Revenue Committee. So, it could be tough getting it through the Kentucky House due to House leadership David Osborne and Steven Rudy.

If the Baby Olivia Act ever gets through the state house, then it would likely get through the state senate, but based on some other legislation that has been proposed in recent years, I think some legislators might prefer to have the Kentucky Department of Education deal with specifics of things like textbooks and classroom videos, rather than passing a law directly telling the schools what to do. They’d prefer to “pass the buck.”

We are disappointed that the Baby Olivia Act didn’t pass, but we are glad that we were able to get many more cosponsors of the legislation.

Cost of Living Economic Issue:

SJR28 would have requested Governor Beshear to petition the EPA to remove the costly reformulated gas requirement in Jefferson County and Oldham County. That legislation passed the state senate but not the state house.

Crime and Punishment:

House Bill 209 would have abolished the death penalty but did not pass.

The state legislature passed Senate Bill 130 which makes it a Class D felony to tamper with a gift card to access its funds before that gift card is legally sold.

The state legislature passed House Bill 399 which makes it a crime to disrupt a legislative proceeding.

Cryptocurrency Issue:

House Bill 701 passed, which established the legal terminology in Kentucky on private sector cryptocurrencies and treats private sector cryptocurrencies as equally taxable for income tax purposes and sales tax purposes as other forms of payment. This legislation does not repeal Article 12 of the Uniform Commercial Code. So, we still have the legal framework set up in Kentucky for a Central Bank Digital Cryptocurrency system, but at least private sector cryptocurrencies created after 2024 will be considered as legitimate alternatives, if businesses are willing to do payments in them.

Driving Issues:

The state legislature passed Senate Bill 43, which creates a medical review board for the purpose of considering a person's ability to drive due to a physical or mental disability.

The state legislature passed Senate Bill 136 in order to detect those who are driving without a license more quickly. It also passed House Bill 390, which establishes a real-time weekly-updating accessible online auto-insurance verification system to identify uninsured motorists within a week or so, to be implemented in 2027.

The state legislature passed House Bill 15 which enables 15-year-olds to get a Driver’s Permit. This reduced the age requirement by one year.

The state legislature passed House Bill 783, which sets the penalty at a Class D felony for theft, fraudulent production or copying, or improper use of a temporary car driver’s registration tag.

Senate Bill 57 would have established a fee of $200 to any person convicted as a “super speeder” (as a speeding ticket fine). It passed the state senate but apparently did not pass the state house.

Education Issues:

The state legislature passed House Bill 4, the anti-DEI bill for schools and colleges.

For the second year in a row, we supported legislation that allows a way to remove erotic literature from school libraries if that literature is inappropriate to quote from at a school board meeting. This year, that bill was House Bill 207, but it did not pass.

The state legislature passed House Bill 208 which forbids cell-phone and social media use by students in class. The bill is not expected to prohibit children with Type 1 Diabetes to use their phones to help monitor their blood sugar through an app. School teachers would still be allowed to have phones for cases of emergencies.

The state legislature passed House Bill 240 which implements a test or test criteria that a child must pass in order to pass from Kindergarten into 1st grade.

House Bill 272, the Dysgraphia bill, would have expanded the dyslexia toolkit required guidance and would have required (rather than allowed) local boards of education to develop an education policy on dyslexia. This legislation did not pass the state senate.

House Bill 298 passed, to help address poor academics in schools.

The state legislature passed House Bill 342, which requires high school students to get one credit in financial literacy before graduating high school.

An amended version of Senate Bill 19 passed that includes a “moment of silence” of one to two minutes to start the day in K-12 public schools and includes a waiver for K-12 public school students to attend one hour per week off-campus of “moral instruction.” Public school students are not legally required to attend those moral instruction sessions. The organizations or individuals providing the “moral instruction” must have insurance for liabilities that might occur with students on their properties, must pass a background check, and must have a transportation plan for transporting students to and from the school campus.

House Bill 156 did not pass but would have required the Kentucky Department of Education to develop a guide for instructional materials for academic standards addressed by the materials, how the instructional materials are connected to specific learning targets aligned to the standards, sample questions, skills, and products students should be able to answer to meet the academic standards, and a curriculum guide for using the educational materials.

We supported The New Voices Act (Senate Bill 40). It would have established free speech protections for student journalists writing in student newspapers in high schools and would have established protections for school student media advisors. This legislation did not pass, despite being in a similar spirit to the SB17 legislation of 2017 that we had supported and got passed.

The state legislature passed Senate Bill 68. That legislation encourages schools to get students to think critically. It originally would have removed various reporting requirements related to physical activity of students and participation in breakfast programs, but it ended up becoming a civics education bill that requires instruction on our constitutional republic, the three branches of government, and how government impacts citizens. This legislation, however, still does not ensure that specific quality civics textbooks will be the standard for educating in the schools. So, it moves things in a positive direction but does not give us everything we want.

House Bill 441 would have made it easier to re-employ some formerly retired teachers in the public schools in Kentucky. This bill passed the house and the senate but was modified, but a concurrence vote is not recorded as having happened.

House Bill 39 would have allowed a sign-language interpreter in a K-12 classroom setting with a score of 4.0 or above on the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment (EIPA) and passage of the EIPA written test to meet certification requirements, to make it a bit easier to deal with the shortage of sign-language interpreters in K-12 schools. House Bill 39 passed the state house but did not get a vote in the state senate.

Senate Bill 83 with Committee Substitute would have provided KEYS Scholarships for non-certified schools. This bill passed the state senate but not the state house.

Election Operation:

House Bill 169 would have made Board of Education elections (school board elections) to be partisan (political party identifying) elections. This legislation did not pass.

Election Security (Office of Election Investigations Bill):

The state legislature passed House Bill 455 which establishes the Office of Election Investigations and Security within the Office of the Attorney General, to process and investigate complaints about election fraud and voter fraud and actually oversee the reporting hotline. So, if the Secretary of State is not cooperative in dealing with election fraud or voter fraud claims, people can now go to the Attorney General’s office instead.

The Democrats in the legislature had opposed House Bill 455, saying that it seemed like an unnecessary duplication of government services already available via the Board of Elections and Secretary of State’s office. So, we continue to see Democrats in Kentucky oppose measures to bolster election security in Kentucky. However, Governor Beshear signed the bill into law.

House Bill 180 that we supported removes credit card and debit card as legit IDs to vote via provisional ballot. This measure passed as part of a different piece of legislation, House Bill 684. So, now, credit cards and debit cards are not accepted as valid ID to vote at all. However, EBT cards and Social Security cards remain as legitimate means for voting ID in Kentucky on provisional ballots, but those are not photo-voter ID. EBT cards may have been added in an election omnibus bill in 2024.

Film Industry:

The legislature passed Senate Bill 1 which forms a Kentucky Film Office to promote Kentucky tourism and to promote the film industry in Kentucky.

The state legislature may have been thinking about promoting the horse industry through film, because they also passed Senate Bill 69, which establishes allied animal health professional licenses for dentistry for horses, to ensure that our thoroughbreds have impeccable teeth, good for being photographed or filmed.

Firefighter Issue:

Governor Andy Beshear signed into law House Bill 131 that changed the shifts of firefighters and enabled them to work 48-hour-long shifts in a different schedule, as well as to have collective bargaining on work schedules in the smaller cities.

Gambling:

We followed the Family Foundation in opposing House Bill 33, which would have legalized more casino gambling. That bill did not pass.

Government Organization:

Governor Andy Beshear signed into law Senate Bill 23, which modifies the rules for subcommittees of the executive branch of government.

Governor Andy Beshear signed into law Senate Bill 178, which does some education and labor cabinet reorganization and establishes the Department for Disability Determination Services in the Education and Labor Cabinet.

Government Transparency:

House Bill 182 that we liked would have prohibited a state or local government from using the word “free” to describe a product or service financed with taxpayer funds. This would have been a measure for government transparency. It did not pass.

Healthcare Issues Other Than Abortion:

Governor Andy Beshear signed into law House Bill 219, which requires hospitals that offer emergency services to also provide training for their emergency department staff on sexual assault emergency response protocols.

House Bill 303 would establish that infield military training works as a substitute for some civilian medical certification requirements. It passed the state legislature.

We supported House Bill 668 that would have made Ivermectin an Over the Counter drug, like it is in Tennessee. However, that legislation did not pass.

House Bill 473 has passed the state legislature and would establish technical amendments for the consumer data privacy HIPPA compliance bill.

Senate Bill 65 passed the state legislature. It removes two administrative regulations relating to Medicaid services after those administrative regulations were found “deficient” in 2024 in between that legislative session and 2025’s session.

We supported House Bill 84, which would establish that the Kentucky Cabinet of Health shall not take orders from the World Health Organization concerning the implementation of health regulations. However, that bill did not get traction.

We had supported Senate Bill 177, which would have banned a Covid19 vaccination requirement for children to attend school. That legislation did not pass. The CDC currently recommends at least 16 vaccines for those 18 years and younger (even more vaccines if the teenager is homosexual or bisexual).

Interest Rate Control:

House Bill 202 did not pass. It would have made 36% the max interest rate for loans in Kentucky.

LGBT Issues:

The state legislature passed Senate Bill 2 to prohibit transgender hormone treatment and elective surgery for gender reassignment for convicted criminals in Kentucky prisons.

The state legislature passed House Bill 495 with Senate Committee Substitute. Like with House Bill 64, the HB495 SCS bill overrides Andy Beshear’s unconstitutional executive order on conversion therapy. (Andy Beshear basically tried to write law with that executive order, going beyond his jurisdiction of applicability.)

The legislature attached a committee substitute that Medicaid shall not spend money on transgender medications and transgender surgeries in Kentucky. Governor Beshear has of course promised to veto that legislation.

The state legislature passed House Bill 313 which designates June as “Kentucky History Month,” which is the same month as the LGBTQ community celebrates “Pride Month.”

House Bill 163 would have required some gender-specific bathrooms in public schools, instead of allowing transgendered persons from going into bathrooms that did not match their biological gender at birth. This bill did not get past the education committee in the KY House.

Marijuana:

We had opposed House Bills 105-106 and Senate Bills 33 & 36 that would have legalized recreational marijuana in one way or another. None of those pieces of legislation passed.

Physician’s Right of Conscience Bill: Healthcare Heroes Recruitment and Retention Act

Senate Bill 132, the physician right of conscience bill that we have supported for two years now, almost passed. The state senate voted to approve it, and the legislation got through a contentious committee meeting in the state house. (C-Fair, Planned Parenthood, a couple of transgender activists, and a hysterical woman opposed it in committee.)

But then, state house leadership committed the bill to the Rules Committee towards the end of the final regular week of the session, effectively killing the bill this year. Last year, the same legislation (then called House Bill 49) got stuck in committee. So, we got more progress on the legislation this year than last year, but it did not make it to the finish line. In both cases, getting the bill to a vote on the KY House floor has been the challenge.

Property Rights:

The state legislature passed House Bill 10, the anti-squatter bill.

House Bill 160 did not pass, but it would have required that local governments have their zoning regulations treat manufactured homes (trailers) with permanent foundations the same as single-family regular homes. That legislation did not get the final concurrence vote that it needed. The legislature likes this bill overall, though.

Senate Bill 129 w SCS 1 passed the state legislature. It states that a tax delinquency protection program is waived for vacant, abandoned properties, under some circumstances, particularly in Louisville. So, houses that are vacant for over a year and whose property tax payments are not current can be seized for other means.

Protecting Kids and Teens Online and Child Safety from Predators:

Governor Andy Beshear signed into law Senate Bill 73 against the sexual blackmail of children and teens online. 

Senate Bill 169 passed the state legislature too. It enhances SB73 through enabling the attorney general to subpoena social media companies and internet service providers to cooperate in investigations into sexual criminal acts of people who use their systems and platforms.

We supported both of those pieces of legislation. We wanted our state to do what it could to keep children safe online while still preserving our liberty and ability to contact our own people online. The legislation does not pose any risk in preventing us from interacting with our friends and supporters online and will have minimal collateral damage. So, we are happy that those two pieces of legislation passed.

House Bill 42 didn’t pass. It had come out of the concern that some sex offenders could try to use the Halloween season festivities to have inappropriate sexual contact with children. The legislators with this bill desired to make it clear that sex offenders are not permitted to attend any Halloween celebrations with legal minors attending.

Religious Liberty:

Now, House Bill 177 would have enhanced Kentucky’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It would have ensured religious liberty for incarcerated individuals, to be enforced by the Attorney General. That legislation did not pass.

Our state senate passed Senate Bill 60, which specifies that the implementation of laws and other government rules shall “not substantially burden” religious practices. However, it got stuck in the house judiciary committee and so did not become law.

School Bus Safety:

We have long known about fights on school buses and about other dangers on the road with people ignoring the stop signs that our school buses put out when they stop to drop off children from school. Some of our state legislators wanted to add more cameras and sensors to help ensure that we have as much recorded evidence as needed whenever something goes wrong, to have a better chance of being able to catch and punish violent perpetrators. Senate Bills 31 and 38 addressed that issue.

Senate Bill 31 did not pass, but Senate Bill 38 passed the state senate and the state house with modifications that then needed the state senate to do a concurrence vote, but the state senate passed over it. So, neither bill has become law.

The legislation would have installed sensors or cameras on school buses to monitor activity within and within a short distance from the school buses

Self-Defense Rights:

House Bill 139 would have lowered the legal age of handgun use to 18 years old from 21. Likewise, Senate Bill 75 would have done the same thing and passed the state senate and almost got a vote on the floor of the state house.

House Bill 83 was a good bill that would have banned Red Flag laws on firearm ownership. That legislation, however, did not pass.

Taxes:

The legislature passed House Bill 1 to give us a ½% decrease in the state income tax to take effect in 2026. So, the new income tax rate will be 3.5%. That has passed both legislatures and been signed by the governor.

House Bill 37 would have removed sales taxes on churches. It had gotten over 40 Republican cosponsors in the House, but it did not pass through the House.

House Bill 151 would have made a refundable income tax credit for volunteer firefighters, but it did not pass.

House Bill 158 would have put on the ballot a Constitutional amendment for giving a discount on property taxes to military veterans and first responders, but it did not pass.

House Bill 198 would have put on the ballot a Constitutional Amendment enabling the General Assembly to eliminate property taxes or some portion of property taxes by later legislation. We like the thought behind this bill, but it could have been worded better, and it did not pass.

Senate Bill 67 would have been a Senior Citizen Property Tax Valuation Constitutional Amendment. It would have put on the ballot a state constitutional amendment to freeze valuation increases on properties owned by senior citizens. This bill passed the state senate but not the state house.

Ten Commandments Legislation:

On the Ten Commandments legislation, some are optimistic that the Ten Commandments will be put again on the state capitol grounds. The state legislature passed House Joint Resolution 15 to get that done. It now goes to the governor to sign or veto.

Despite our efforts at supporting House Bill 65[4] and House Bill 116[5] (through robocalls and emails) for getting the Ten Commandments in the schools, it seems like some state legislators were not as enthusiastic. Other than the Baby Olivia Act, those pieces of legislation were some of the most cosponsored bills in the House Education Committee. One key lesson here is that the number of cosponsors doesn’t necessarily indicate whether or not a bill will be taken up by committee. That education committee got swamped with more and more bills to consider the further time went on this session.

Veterans Cemeteries:

Governor Andy Beshear signed into law House Bill 191. Our National Guard and Reserve service members can now legally be interred in Kentucky state veterans’ cemeteries upon their deaths.

Water Management:

House Bill 16 would have made fluoridation voluntary for local water treatment departments. It passed the state house but not the state senate.

The legislature passed Senate Bill 89, which changed the definition of the waters of the Commonwealth. So, the official waters that Kentucky claims to own have changed.

Conclusion:

This legislative session, the legislature was mostly focused on feel-good do-little bills on topics like making June into Kentucky History Month and on bipartisan economic bills. Some exceptions were on topics like election security, keeping children safe online, and enabling teens to get driving permits. The legislature continues to take a “baby steps” approach, as we saw with the Honey Bill, the civics education bill, and getting the 10 Commandments put back up at the state capitol building but not in the schools.

It was tougher to get good legislation passed through the Kentucky state house this year than it was the state senate. Part of the reason was house leadership, as Steven Rudy implied on KET that he wanted to limit how much legislation passed. But the state house also had introduced much more legislation than the state senate did, so it was easier for good legislation to get lost in the shuffle (passed over).

We seem to be good at still getting cosponsors on some key bills when we work together with other like-minded organizations, but so far, getting good legislation passed has been difficult.

Here is legislation that we supported that passed this legislative session:

• Mary Carol Akers Birth Centers Act (as part of House Bill 90) for freestanding birthing centers

• Senate Bill 73 with Senate Bill 169 legislation against sexual blackmail of kids and teens online

• House Bill 495 (House Bill 64) legislation to overturn Governor Andy Beshear’s unconstitutional executive order on conversion therapy, where Beshear endeavored to make what can only be law out of an executive order

• House Bill 684 (included the provisions of House Bill 180) to remove credit cards and debit cards as legit IDs to vote via provisional ballot (and hence for all voting)

• Senate Bill 68 encourages schools to get students to think critically and is a civics education bill that requires instruction on our constitutional republic

• House Bill 208 legislation to forbid cell-phone and social media use by students in class

The state legislature also passed other legislation that we overall like, such as the Cryptocurrency Bill (House Bill 701), the reduction in the income tax in 2026 (House Bill 1), and the bill to restore the Ten Commandments monument to the state capitol area (House Joint Resolution 15). Many of our supporters also like the anti-DEI bill (House Bill 4) that passed the legislature also. Governor Andy Beshear vetoed that anti-DEI bill, and we expect the state legislature will overturn that veto.

Legislation We Liked Last Year That Didn’t Appear in 2025

• Anti-discrimination student and faculty freedom of conscience bill (SB6 in 2024)

• Enhanced school accountability to parents (HB304 in 2024)

• Quality textbooks for civics education for middle and high school

• Increasing the jury duty pay to $125/day

Constitutional Amendment Ideas for the 2026 Election Ballot

Note: Only four amendments can legally be put on the ballot for any individual election

1. Pro-life constitutional amendment(s), such as no tax money for abortion and an anti-homicide pro-life amendment

2. School choice constitutional amendment

3. Abolition of all property taxes for everyone constitutional amendment (this could be done gradually if we passed a standard deduction for property valuation amendment that could be adjusted by the state legislature)

4. Abolition of income taxes constitutional amendment

5. Abolition of civil asset forfeiture policy amendment

6. Supreme Court judge races being partisan races

7. Constitutional Right to Repair all purchased items (including electronics, vehicles, and wood-crafted items), even through third-party companies or on one’s own

Thank you for any support you gave in encouraging state legislators to pass good bills and reject bad ones.

Notes:

[1] The freestanding birthing centers bill is also known as the Mary Carol Akers Birth Centers Act. Freestanding birthing centers are medical clinics specializing in child birth. “Another significant component of HB 90 is the establishment of freestanding birthing centers in Kentucky,” Addia Wuchner wrote. “By removing barriers to these centers, the bill offers pregnant and birthing women additional choices for their prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care. This move aligns Kentucky with 40 other states that have embraced such centers, providing safe perinatal care in a homelike environment for low-risk pregnancies.”

[2] As Addia Wuchner wrote, “HB 90 mandates the expansion of perinatal palliative care services across the Commonwealth. This provision requires hospitals and birthing centers to offer or refer families facing life-limiting diagnoses for their unborn children to appropriate services.” Dr. Frank Simon would have preferred that the requirement to have a physician present would have specified that a General Practitioner (GP) and or OBGYN would need to be present at the freestanding birthing centers. So, he wasn’t as enthusiastic about the freestanding birthing centers bill this year, but some concerns about the degree of medical care available have been addressed.

[3] As Addia Wuchner wrote, “One of the pivotal aspects of HB 90 is the explicit clarification of medical exceptions within Kentucky’s abortion laws. The bill specifies that treatments for conditions such as miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, molar pregnancies, and other life-threatening complications are not considered abortions. This distinction ensures that healthcare providers can offer timely and appropriate care without legal concerns. As reported by the Associated Press, these exceptions cover cases like life-threatening miscarriage management, emergencies due to sepsis and hemorrhaging, and procedures necessary to prevent the death or substantial risk to the pregnant woman.” But the Kentucky Cabinet of Health already recognized several conditions as qualifying under the life of the mother exception to permit abortion, including sepsis and hemorrhage, among other conditions. So, this move was about specifying in the law the conditions themselves more than anything else.

[4] House Bill 65 would have required the 10 Commandments be displayed in schools upon voluntary donation of funds to put it up.

[5] House Bill 116 would have permitted the reading or posting of the Ten Commandments in a public school classroom or event, by school teachers and the principals.