FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Republican-backed bill touted as an attempt to bring clarity to Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban was vetoed Tuesday by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who said it would do the opposite by undermining the judgment of doctors while further imperiling the lives of pregnant women in emergency situations.
Beshear, an abortion-rights supporter who is seen as a potential candidate for the White House in 2028, followed the advice of abortion-rights supporters who urged the governor to reject the measure.
Kentucky’s GOP supermajority legislature will have a chance to override Beshear’s veto when lawmakers reconvene Thursday for the final two days of this year’s 30-day session.
The bill’s supporters said it’s meant to offer clarity to doctors now fearful of breaking Kentucky law for terminating pregnancies while treating expectant mothers with grave complications. Delving into potential life-or-death situations, the bill aims to provide clear guidelines for doctors in such emergencies while maintaining Kentucky’s strict prohibitions against abortion, supporters said.
“Although supporters of House Bill 90 claim it protects pregnant women and clarifies abortion law in Kentucky, it actually does the opposite,” Beshear said in his veto message Tuesday evening.
The governor said the bill would block access to health care and put the lives of women facing crisis pregnancies at even more risk.
Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban has been in place since a so-called trigger law took effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The Bluegrass State bans abortions except when carried out to save a mother’s life. Efforts to add exceptions for cases of rape or incest or when pregnancies are nonviable have made no headway in Kentucky’s legislature.
The new legislation would create a list of emergency situations in which abortions could be done to save the mother’s life, but Beshear said it was flawed.
“The bill is silent on any other emergency situations,” the governor said in his message. “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.”
A House Republican spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to enforce abortion bans, exceptions have been a legal and political battleground.
The Kentucky bill says doctors exercising reasonable medical judgment may take action “separating a pregnant woman from her unborn child” in such cases as: lifesaving miscarriage management; emergency intervention for sepsis and hemorrhaging; procedures necessary to prevent the death or substantial risk of death of the pregnant woman; removal of an ectopic pregnancy; treatment of a molar pregnancy.
“It’s not meant to be an exhaustive list but it is the most common issues that physicians and mothers, who are facing a crisis pregnancy, are facing,” Republican state Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser said during a House debate on the measure.
In touting the bill, GOP state Rep. Jason Nemes said it would ensure that women “facing life-threatening situations receive timely, appropriate medical care, and gives providers the legal certainty they need to act decisively.”
Beshear faulted the bill for not containing language used by medical professionals.
“It also substitutes a physician’s best clinical judgment with an ambiguous, unworkable ‘reasonable medical judgment’ standard that will make doctors hesitant to provide life-saving care for fear someone other than the treating doctor, like a prosecutor or a court, may after the fact find it ‘unreasonable,’” Beshear said. “These barriers to treatment could delay access to evidence-based and lifesaving care.”
Addia Wuchner, executive director of Kentucky Right to Life, was among the bill’s advocates, telling a legislative panel: “This is medical care that needs to take place in the commonwealth.”
David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation, a socially conservative group, said the veto showed that Beshear is a “mouthpiece” for abortion-rights groups. Walls called it “pro-mom and pro-baby” bill meant to add clarity to Kentucky law to protect maternal health.
Abortion-rights supporter Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky State director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, said Beshear “put patients over politics” with his veto.
“HB 90 was never about clarity or compassion,” she said in a statement. “It ignored medical standards, used anti-abortion rhetoric like ‘maternal-fetal separation’ and would have forced doctors to delay care during medical emergencies.”
