Senate Bill introduced to protect IVF rights in Kentucky

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) — A new bill aiming to safeguard IVF providers from criminal liability for providing services has been introduced in the senate.

Senator Cassie Chambers Armstrong now wanting to enact laws to protect choices for those in the bluegrass.

“This bill is about is about making sure that those health care facilities that provide IVF can stay open, because what we’ve seen in Alabama is that they’ve had to close they can’t provide those services, no one can access them,” said Chambers Armstrong.

Senate Bill 301, introduced Tuesday aims to help IVF providers.

“By making sure that our providers know, hey, no one’s going to charge you with a crime, it is okay to keep providing this really important service that a lot of families in Kentucky have been able to grow their families using, we can make sure that that IVF remains available for folks in the state,” added Senator Chambers Armstrong.

“The bill comes is in response to Alabama, where it’s supreme court ruled last week, frozen embryos are children and those who destroy them can charged with wrongful death.

“The cause of concern is the undoing of the constitutional protections we had at the federal level by the Dobbs decision and so this state court decision was made possible by the Dobbs decision,” also said Secretary Xavier Becerra, Health and Human Services Department.

Now, many IVF providers in Alabama have halted services.
Meantime those in Washington D.C. are aiming to protect IVF at the federal level.

“If you connect the dots, from this decision, which is now putting the opportunities for families to actually have a child, to the Dobbs decision and Dobbs, of course, is directly connected to Roe versus Wade,” added Sec. Becerra.

Chambers Armstrong is concerned with garnering support, she knows the road ahead is a tough one.

“It needs to be assigned to committee, it needs to get a committee hearing, it needs to clear the House Chamber as well, and so right now, I’m focused on making sure that folks understand what this legislation is about, and beginning to build some bipartisan support for it,” she says.

Chambers Armstrong says she hopes her colleagues on both sides of the aisle, will help her co-sponsor the bill.