FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The Following Statement Can Be Attributed to Samuel Crankshaw Regarding Veto Override of House Bill 2:
"Kentucky lawmakers are continuing to ignore the real issues facing our commonwealth, and are instead focused on restricting access to safe, legal abortion care.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky condemns the General Assembly’s decision to override the veto of House Bill 2. This is a blatant attempt by anti-abortion politicians to make it harder for Kentuckians to access abortion care. House Bill 2 serves as another step forward in the General Assembly’s years-long campaign to push constitutionally-protected abortion care out of reach, bit by bit.
This new law will allow anti-abortion Attorney General Daniel Cameron to interfere with and undermine regulatory powers currently held by career health experts at the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. It will also allow the Attorney General to seek civil and criminal penalties against providers, even if the Cabinet disagrees.
House Bill 2 clearly targets providers of abortion care – an area of healthcare that is already incredibly tightly regulated – as it does not expand the Attorney General’s enforcement powers to any other areas of healthcare. Attorney General Cameron has indicated he would use these powers to target, and even punish abortion care providers with criminal and civil penalties.
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that elected officials should rely on science and health experts to inform their policy decisions, rather than attempt to act as healthcare experts themselves.
Kentucky deserves a legislature that solves problems. Instead, lawmakers continue to pass politically-motivated bills that will have disproportionate impacts on people of color, with low-incomes, and who live in rural areas."
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