For Kentucky resident Robin Kunkel, getting an abortion saved her life. If the omnibus abortion bill that passed the House Veterans, Military Affairs, and Public Protection Committee meeting Tuesday morning becomes law, it might prevent others from getting the procedure.
After years of deciding whether Kunkel and her partner wanted to have a baby, they finally took the step to have a child.
“I soon became pregnant, and we were overwhelmed and overjoyed,” Kunkel said. “We anxiously waited to see our baby at our first ultrasound appointment, only to be told the OB didn’t see anything in my uterus.”
The likely scenario was that she had already miscarried, but she later learned that she was having an ectopic pregnancy. The fetal tissue was stuck in her fallopian tube. She needed to go to the hospital right away.
“Not only is it incredibly painful for a fetal tube to rupture, it destroys the tube and reduces the chances of conceiving in the future,” Kunkel said.
A week later, she returned to the emergency room and had to have an abortion to end the pregnancy.
“A delay in care due to things like legal restrictions, doctors who are afraid of being held liable, and providers and hospitals that can deny prenatal would have meant prolonging my mental and physical suffering, as well as a lower likelihood of getting pregnant again,” Kunkel said.
Committee member Rep. Bill Wesley (R-Ravenna) mentioned that this bill is about the sanctity of life.
“It’s not a ball of cells,” Wesley said. “It’s not a blob. It’s a life.”
House Bill 3, otherwise known as the “Humanity in HealthCare Act 2022,” will have five main elements:
- Updating current law on parental consent for minors.
- Dignified care for the remains of aborted fetuses.
- Reporting abortion statistics.
- No taxpayer funding of abortion in Kentucky.
- Using creating guidelines for using chemicals to abort the pregnancy.
“Informed consent, sanitary and adequate operating space, the doctor/patient relationship, and the commitment to do no harm is all essential to that public trust in the medical profession,” said Michael Johnson of the Family Foundation in support of the bill.
One of the central tenets of the bill is the use of misoprostol and mifepristone, which are two drugs used for abortion. In December, a federal rule allowed women to obtain these drugs through the mail. But, House Bill 3 argues these drugs shouldn’t be available through the mail due to the danger they pose.
The pills can allegedly cause excessive bleeding, which can also occur during an ectopic pregnancy, said Katie Glenn, government affairs counsel at Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group in the United States. She told a story about how a woman in India was bleeding due to the medicine but thought it was just a side effect. It turned out she had an ectopic pregnancy, and she died.
“What this does is require Kentucky women to see Kentucky doctors, to be screened for ectopic pregnancy,” Glenn said.
Opponents of the bill say that abortions are one of the safest procedures.
“Elective termination of pregnancy, specific the use of medication-induced abortion, is one of the safest outpatient procedures that we provide,” said Hanna Peterson, an OBGYN doctor in the University of Louisville’s healthcare system. “Far safer than childbirth, with complications less than one percent nationwide.”
Another major issue of the bill is that it will put providers on a list if they provide the procedure, leading to anti-abortion activists potentially committing crimes against doctors and providers.
“In addition to harming patients, this bill also targets abortion providers with provisions that will open them up to increased harassment and intimidation,” said Tamarra Wieder of Planned Parenthood’s advocacy group in Kentucky. “This bill requires the state to publish the name of every medication abortion provider on a state-run portal, essentially creating a hitlist for anti-abortion extremists.”