Senate approves bill to prohibit abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy

FRANKFORT -- The state Senate today approved legislation that would prohibit a woman
from having an abortion in Kentucky if she is 20 weeks or more into a pregnancy.

The legislation, Senate Bill 5, would "protect pain-capable children from the horror
of having an abortion performed on them," said a primary sponsor of the bill, Sen.
Brandon Smith, R-Hazard.

Smith said books for expecting parents describe a 20-week-old fetus as capable of
sucking its thumb, yawning, stretching, making faces and responding to pain.

SB 5 passed on a 30-6 vote. It now goes to the House of Representatives for
consideration.

Sen. Reginald Thomas, D-Lexington, was among the opponents of the measure, arguing
that women should be able to make decisions on their pregnancies without the
limitations of SB 5.

"My fear is that by adopting this bill that we're going to ultimately go back to
what we saw in the 50s and 60s when we had back-alley butcher shops to take care of
situations rather than having a safe medical procedure," Thomas said.

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Hopkinsville, a primary sponsor of the legislation, says
it focuses on the wellbeing of the unborn child. "We're not just talking about these
women who are seeking abortions. ... We're talking about the child that is a life.
That life deserves a chance to survive. Twenty weeks - that's five months. ... We're
not stopping anyone from getting an abortion. We're not doing anything that gets in
the way of (women's) conversations with their partner, their spouse, their
physician, their priest or minister. We're not stopping any of that. But we are
going to recognize that life exists there."

Sen. Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, a medical doctor, said that medical advances are
reducing the age at which fetuses are viable, or able to survive outside the womb.
"All we're trying to do here with this bill is give those children an opportunity to
survive," he said.

Sen. Denise Harper Angel, D-Louisville, voted against SB 5 and urged lawmakers to
focus on other issues. "One in four children in Kentucky are living in poverty and
over 7,000 live in foster care. Our young people, if they are fortunate enough to
graduate from college, come out with huge student loans and can't find jobs.
Four-hundred-thousand people may fall through the cracks and lose their health
insurance. My question is: why do we spend our precious time in this body attacking
a woman's right to choose ... when Kentucky faces so many more demanding issues?"

While casting his vote in favor of the legislation, Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville,
also quoted statistics.

"We heard statistics earlier ... But I want to say there are also statistics of
58,586,256 abortions that have been performed in the United States since 1973.
That's an average of over 1 million abortions per year," he said.

SB 5 contains an emergency clause, which would make it effective immediately upon
being signed into law by the governor.