by Laurel Duggan
Kentucky legislators banned males from women’s sports and restricted abortions Wednesday, overriding the Democratic governor’s veto.
Lawmakers overrode Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of Senate Bill 83, which bars males from participating in girls’ sports from elementary through secondary education. Beshear preferred a policy allowing males to compete in girls’ sports if they underwent certain medical sex change treatments rather than an outright ban, he explained in his April 7 veto letter.
The legislature also passed a new abortion bill into law over Beshear’s April 8 veto, banning abortions after 15 weeks and imposing new requirements on practitioners such as reporting fetal deaths occurring after 20 weeks and disposing of their bodies as human remains rather than medical waste.
The woke movement is alive & well in the KY Governor’s mansion after today’s vetoes of SB83 & SB1. A Governor who thinks that decades of females fighting for sports equality & replaced by transgender competition is not tuned into the people of the Commonwealth.
— Max Wise (@maxwellwise) April 7, 2022
“The woke movement is alive & well in the KY Governor’s mansion,” state Senator Max Wise said on April 7. “A Governor who thinks that decades of females fighting for sports equality & replaced by transgender competition is not tuned into the people of the Commonwealth.”
Physicians who violate the 15-week abortion ban will lose their medical licenses for no less than six months. The law makes exceptions for medical emergencies.
Beshear vetoed the abortion legislation because it does not make exceptions for rape or incest and may violate the Constitution, he explained in his veto letter.
The Supreme Court is currently considering Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, a case that directly challenges Roe v. Wade. The Court is expected to issue a decision in June and could potentially overturn Roe or change the legal understanding of when fetal viability is determined, which would allow states to make stricter abortion laws.
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Laurel Duggan is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
I admire the Kentucky Governor’s courage in vetoing the anti-abortion and anti-trams bills. It’s a shame that the legislature still had enough votes for an override.