Supporters of an amendment to eliminate abortion rights from the state constitution have launched their first ad with some disputed claims about the potential impact if voters fail to approve the ballot measure Nov. 8.
“Radical out-of-state activists want to spend YOUR tax dollars on late-term abortions even up to the moment of birth,” a female narrator says in the 30-second ad, which features images of abortion rights protesters followed by an infant’s feet and a young child blowing out birthday candles.
“This November, you can stop them by voting yes on amendment #2, which stops taxpayer-funded, late-term abortions,” it adds.
The ad was immediately blasted by a member of Protect Kentucky Access, a coalition of Kentucky abortion rights supporters that formed to fight the amendment.
“It’s medical misinformation at its worst,” said Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. “Kentuckians, they are tired of being lied to, they are tired of having their health care restricted.”
Kentucky politics:NKY's House District 69: Democrat Chris Brown runs against Republican Steve Doan
Kentucky schools:Low scores, high graduation rates: How did Northern Kentucky schools do on report cards?
No abortions currently are permitted in Kentucky, except for medical emergencies, under a state “trigger law” after the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights case on June 24.
And multiple state laws enacted in recent years ban the procedure early in pregnancy, including one that outlaws abortion after six weeks, generally before women realize they are pregnant. Another state law that took effect this year bans abortion at 15 weeks. Abortions in Kentucky after 20 weeks − about midway through a pregnancy − have been illegal since 2017.
Kentucky also in 2021 enacted a law requiring medical providers to make every effort to save an infant that survives a late-term abortion even though such abortions are illegal in the state and lawmakers at the time said they knew of no such instance where that had occurred.
Furthermore, use of federal money on abortions is prohibited by the Hyde amendment, which bars the use of federal aid programs, such as Medicaid, for abortion services. While states may provide funding, Kentucky does not.
“There is no taxpayer-funded abortion in Kentucky,” Wieder said.
Addia Wuchner, chairwoman of the Yes for Life campaign, which supports the measure known as Constitutional Amendment 2, announced the new ad in a release Tuesday.
“Kentuckians have the unique opportunity to protect life and stop late-term taxpayer funded abortion up to the moment of birth and protect the unborn,” said Wuchner, who also is executive director of Kentucky Right to Life, part of a coalition of advocacy and faith groups that formed the Yes for Life campaign.
The claims in the new Yes for Life ad come as Wuchner has repeatedly called out opponents of the amendment for spreading alleged misinformation about its impact and urged them to be truthful.
“It’s not nice to lie to Kentucky women,” she said in an Oct. 12 interview with The Courier Journal.
“I have watched and seen some of the information be totally misleading and untrue,” Wuchner said.
Wuchner did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the new ad or say where it is being aired. The news release described it as a “statewide advertising campaign.”
Federal records show the group bought about $343,000 worth of ads on cable television and TV throughout Kentucky, including Fox News, ESPN and in Bowling Green and Paducah. That’s more than half the money Yes for Life reported raising in its last campaign spending report.
Meanwhile, opponents of the amendment through the campaign Protect Kentucky Access, have released two television ads urging voters to reject the amendment. Both feature women relating personal stories, one from a woman who chose to terminate a much-wanted pregnancy for medical reasons, and the other, a grandmother urging that abortion remain available.
Kentucky’s proposed one-sentence, constitutional amendment states:
“To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.”
Opponents of the amendment have said, if enacted, it will foreclose a potential state right to abortion now that it has been struck down as a federal constitutional right.
Supporters have said it will prevent “activist” judges from finding the state constitution provides a right to abortion.
But the new ad brings a new level of rhetoric from amendment supporters.
The supporters, Yes for Life, include Kentucky Right to Life, the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, the Kentucky Baptist Convention, the Family Foundation, the Commonwealth Policy Center and Sisters for Life.
Opponents, Protect Kentucky Access members, include Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, the Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, the Fairness Campaign, Sister Song — a reproductive justice collective for women of color — the Kentucky Black Birth Alliance and Sexy Sex-Ed, which promotes information about sex and sexuality.
So far, Protect Kentucky access has far outraised Yes for Life, reporting about $3 million as of its most recent campaign finance report. Yes for Life has reported a total of about $595,000.
Contact reporter Deborah Yetter at [email protected] or on Twitter at @d_yetter. Reporter Joe Sonka contributed to this story.
