Lawmakers said Kentucky legislation protecting doctors and other health providers from criminal liability was written broadly enough to apply to in vitro fertilization services.
House Bill 159 would shield health care providers from criminal liability for any “harm or damages” alleged to occur from “an act or omission relating to the provision of health services."
GOP State Senator Whitney Westerfield of Hopkinsville said the bill's definition of health care providers is broad enough to apply to IVF services and would accomplish what other bills sought to do in safeguarding IVF access.
Westerfield is an abortion opponent who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. He said making sure providers are clear on what they can do is essential.
“It was important to me to make that clear that providers can do what they do every day, and what moms and dads are counting on them to do every day to provide their services without fear of being prosecuted unduly. And I feel confident the bill is going to do that.”
In vitro fertilization emerged as a political issue in February after an Alabama Supreme Court ruling found that in wrongful death lawsuits in that state, embryos outside the uterus had the same legal protections as children.
While IVF is popular, there are anti-abortion advocates pushing to recognize embryos and fetuses as humans as a step toward banning abortion.
The Kentucky measure now goes to Governor Andy Beshear.
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