(Headline USA) Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed a measure on Friday that would ban abortions in Kentucky after 15 weeks of pregnancy and regulate the dispensing of abortion pills.
The governor raised doubts about the constitutionality of the bill and criticized it for not including exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.
State lawmakers will have a chance to override the veto when they reconvene next week for the final two days of this year’s 60-day legislative session. The abortion measure won overwhelming support in the GOP-dominated legislature.
The proposed 15-week ban is modeled after a Mississippi law. Kentucky law currently bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Beshear on Friday condemned the bill for failing to exclude pregnancies caused by rape or incest.
“Rape and incest are violent crimes,” the governor said in his veto message. “Victims of these crimes should have options, not be further scarred through a process that exposes them to more harm from their rapists or that treats them like offenders themselves.”
The governor said the bill would make it harder for girls under 18 to end a pregnancy without notifying both parents. As an example, he said that a girl impregnated by her father would have to notify him of her intent to get an abortion.
Beshear, a former state attorney general, also said the bill is “likely unconstitutional.”
Opponents of the Kentucky bill say its restrictions are so onerous that no abortion clinic could comply.
The state Republican Party criticized Beshear for the veto. It will likely surface as an issue again next year when the governor runs for a second term in Republican-trending Kentucky.
On Friday, state GOP spokesperson Sean Southard said the governor’s veto was “the latest action in his ideological war on the conservative values held by Kentuckians.”
Another key part of the bill would set regulations for the dispensing of abortion pills. It would require women to be examined in person by a doctor before receiving the medication.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.
