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Planned Parenthood Statement on Senate Bill 9 Hearing

Contact: Nicole Erwin, Communications Manager, 502-260-8678; [email protected]

For Immediate Release: March 11, 2020 (Updated: March 11, 2020, 5:59 p.m.)


While our Commonwealth is Facing a Real Health Care Crisis with Community Spread COVID-19 Cases, Sen. Westerfield is Wasting Time on an Issue That Doesn’t Exist

FRANKFORT, KY— Today, following the House Judiciary Committee hearing where the ACLU of Kentucky, Representative Maria Sorolis, and Representative Charles Booker spoke about the unnecessary burden Senate Bill 9 would place on pregnant people —another attempt to score political points and drive a false narrative to stigmatize reproductive health care—the bill was voted out of committee in a vote of 16 yes, 4 no and 2 passes. 

Statement from Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky State Director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana and Kentucky:

“Today we watched Senator Whittney Westerfield create a spectacle in the House Standing Judiciary Committee with Senate Bill 9, a bill that is a solution in search of a problem, while our Commonwealth is facing a real health care crisis with community spread COVID-19 cases. Sen. Westerfield is wasting time interfering in private medical decisions between patients and providers when he admitted during the hearing that he couldn’t answer questions regarding how the bill would affect families, saying "that's for a medical professional to figure out, not me."

“Sen. Westerfield’s bill is a Kentucky version of the "Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act," which previously failed in the U.S. Senate. 

“Sen. Westerfield is implying through SB 9 that medical professionals are performing infanticide. That is a lie. In 2002, Congress passed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which guaranteed to infants born at any stage of development full legal rights. These sham shenanigans stigmatizing and shaming abortion care have to stop.

“The public deserves to be protected from real health threats, and not these misleading, dangerous attempts of copycat legislation from extremist politicians who want to ban abortion—a constitutional and human right.”

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Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky’s (PPINK) mission is to serve persons in Indiana and Kentucky —without bias or judgment, without fear, without fail — by providing access to high-quality health care confidentially and compassionately; by reducing unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections through age-appropriate and accurate sexual health education; and by advocating for freedom of individual choice in all matters of sexual health and reproductive justice.

PPINK’s doors are open to all who need care and we provide our services in a confidential, compassionate and non-judgmental manner. Learn more at www.ppink.org.

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