KY Gov. Matt Bevin: ‘We Will Continue to Defend Pro-Life Laws No Matter the Fight’

The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Dr. Susan Berry

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) took to Twitter Sunday to assert his administration “will continue to defend pro-life laws in Kentucky, no matter the fight the ACLU, Planned Parenthood or other organizations bring.”

“Why?” he continued. “Because we stand on the side of right, and we stand on the side of life.”

A press statement released Monday notes Bevin filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court last week, asking the Court to reject an abortion facility’s appeal in the case of HB 2, a law that requires an abortion provider to offer mothers an ultrasound and description of the image, as well as the chance to hear the fetal heartbeat prior to abortion.

As Breitbart News reported, in April a 2-1 vote of a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit struck down a lower court ruling that declared the law unconstitutional based on the argument the law violated the free speech of physicians.

Judge John K. Bush, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote in the majority opinion that while the law requires doctors to offer the ultrasound images and descriptions of them to the mothers, “[t]here is no requirement that the patient view the images or listen to the doctor’s description.”

In June, the Sixth Circuit then rejected the request of the Louisville abortion facility to have the entire court bench rehear the case.

Steve Pitt, Gov. Bevin’s General Counsel said:

The Sixth Circuit affirmed that the HB 2 ultrasound law underscores the commonsense notion that patients should be well equipped with relevant information before making important medical decisions. This legal appeal by the EMW Women’s Surgical Center is simply another desperate attempt to undermine a Kentucky law, which passed with the support of more than 87 percent of state legislators.

Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear, a Democrat who is attempting to unseat Bevin on Election Day, has been battling the pro-life governor and has refused to defend the pro-life measures passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Bevin.

Bevin has worked with the Kentucky General Assembly to enact other pieces of pro-life legislation, including:

  • SB 4 (2016) – requiring informed consent (in-person or via real-time video)
  • SB 5 (2017) – protecting children after 20 weeks of gestation
  • SB 8 (2017) – defunding Planned Parenthood
  • SB 112 (2018) – banning telehealth chemical abortions
  • HB 454 (2018) – banning the practice of live dismemberment abortion
  • SB 9 (2019) – banning abortions after a baby’s heartbeat has been detected
  • SB 50 (2019) – requiring doctors to present information to patients about the reversal of medications abortions
  • HB 5 (2019) – banning abortions based on race, gender, and perceived disability
  • HB 148 – banning abortions in Kentucky if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Bevin’s legal team is currently defending three of these laws – HB 454 (live dismemberment law); SB 9 (fetal heartbeat law); and HB 5 (anti-eugenics law) – in federal court, says his office’s statement.

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