Current:Home > StocksRepublican lawmaker says Kentucky’s newly passed shield bill protects IVF services -Trailblazer Capital Learning
Republican lawmaker says Kentucky’s newly passed shield bill protects IVF services
View
Date:2025-04-16 17:16:04
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky legislation shielding doctors and other health providers from criminal liability was written broadly enough to apply to in vitro fertilization services, a Republican lawmaker said Friday as the bill won final passage.
The measure, which now goes to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, would accomplish what other bills sought to do to safeguard access to IVF services, GOP state Sen. Whitney Westerfield said in an interview. The other bills have made no progress in Kentucky’s GOP supermajority legislature with only a few days left in this year’s session.
Westerfield, an abortion opponent who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said during the 37-0 Senate roll call vote that the bill’s definition of health care providers was broad enough to apply to IVF services.
“It was important to me to make that clear that providers can do what they do every day, and what moms and dads are counting on them to do every day to provide their services without fear of being prosecuted unduly,” Westerfield said in the interview afterward. “And I feel confident the bill is going to do that.”
In vitro fertilization emerged as a political issue across the U.S. in February after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that in wrongful death lawsuits in that state, embryos outside the uterus had the same legal protections as children. Major medical providers in Alabama paused IVF services until Alabama’s governor signed a quickly passed law protecting IVF providers from legal liability.
While IVF is popular, some anti-abortion advocates have been pushing to recognize embryos and fetuses as humans as a step toward banning abortion.
The Kentucky legislation — House Bill 159 — would shield health care providers from criminal liability for any “harm or damages” alleged to have occurred from “an act or omission relating to the provision of health services.” That legal protection would not apply in cases of gross negligence or when there was malicious or intentional misconduct.
The measure originated in the Kentucky House, where its lead sponsor, Republican state Rep. Patrick Flannery, said it was intended to apply to all health care providers –- including nurses, doctors and other health providers. The bill won 94-0 House passage last month.
During the House debate, supporters said their motivation was to protect frontline health workers from prosecution for inadvertent mistakes.
The legislation drew only a short discussion Friday in the Senate, and Westerfield was the only senator to raise the IVF issue.
He said afterward that he doesn’t think Kentucky courts would make the same ruling that the Alabama court did. But legislative action was important, he said, to reassure those providing IVF services that “they can keep doing their jobs” and that couples feel “safe knowing that they can go down that path knowing it’s not going to be interrupted.”
After the Alabama court ruling, Westerfield filed a bill to limit liability for health care providers if there is a loss or damage to a human embryo. That bill and a separate one to protect IVF providers from criminal liability when providing fertility services have stalled in committees.
Democratic state Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, lead sponsor of the other bill, supported the measure that won final passage Friday but said she’d prefer one that’s more direct.
“It would behoove us to advance one of the bills that specifically addresses IVF, because then it is very clear,” she said in an interview.
As for the measure that passed, she said: “I do believe that this is a good bill that does have a plausible reading that would provide IVF protection. It’s not as clear as I would like, but it is a step in the right direction.”
___
Associated Press Writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this report from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
veryGood! (36766)
Related
- Scoot flight from Singapore to Wuhan turns back after 'technical issue' detected
- Hit with falling sales, McDonald's extends popular $5 meal deal, eyes big new burger
- Amy Wilson-Hardy, rugby sevens player, faces investigation for alleged racist remarks
- Paychecks grew more slowly this spring, a sign inflation may keep cooling
- Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people
- One Extraordinary Olympic Photo: David J. Phillip captures swimming from the bottom of the pool
- MLB trade deadline live updates: Jack Flaherty to Dodgers, latest news
- Usher is bringing an 'intimate' concert film to theaters: 'A special experience'
- Selena Gomez's "Weird Uncles" Steve Martin and Martin Short React to Her Engagement
- Navajo Nation plans to test limit of tribal law preventing transportation of uranium on its land
Ranking
- South Korean president's party divided over defiant martial law speech
- Look: Snoop Dogg enters pool with Michael Phelps at 2024 Paris Olympics on NBC
- Judge tells UCLA it must protect Jewish students' equal access on campus
- Kathie Lee Gifford Hospitalized With Fractured Pelvis
- Head of the Federal Aviation Administration to resign, allowing Trump to pick his successor
- Man shot and killed in ambush outside Philadelphia mosque, police say
- Snoop Dogg's winning NBC Olympics commentary is pure gold
- 2024 Olympics: What USA Tennis' Emma Navarro Told “Cut-Throat” Opponent Zheng Qinwen in Heated Exchange
Recommendation
What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
USWNT vs. Australia live updates: USA lineup at Olympics, how to watch
Coco Gauff loses an argument with the chair umpire and a match to Donna Vekic at the Paris Olympics
Simone Biles reveals champion gymnastics team's 'official' nickname: the 'Golden Girls'
'Survivor' 47 finale, part one recap: 2 players were sent home. Who's left in the game?
Cierra Burdick brings Lady Vols back to Olympic Games, but this time in 3x3 basketball
Hoda Kotb Uses a Stapler to Fix Wardrobe Malfunction While Hosting in Paris
Eight international track and field stars to know at the 2024 Paris Olympics