FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
Kentucky Legislators Confront Misinformation Campaign Against Amendment #2
October 27, 2022
CONTACT: Richard Nelson
Frankfort, Ky (October 26, 2022) – Twenty-eight House and Senate members of the Kentucky General Assembly held a press conference Thursday to dispel misinformation in the campaign against the proposed Yes for Life Constitutional Amendment #2.
State Rep. Nancy Tate (R-Brandenburg) said “there’s a massive misinformation campaign” meant to scare Kentucky women to vote against Amendment #2. Protect Kentucky Access (PKA), the leading group opposed to the Amendment, claims that the measure “bans all abortions.” But Tate and her colleagues say that is false. “Under current Kentucky law, abortion is legal if necessary to preserve the life and health of pregnant woman with a complicated pregnancy,” Tate said. “Passage of Amendment #2 will not change this provision.”
Protect Kentucky Access has raised at least $3 million to defeat Amendment #2. So far, 83% of their funding came from out of state donors including former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg who donated $250,000. The ACLU and Planned Parenthood donated a combined $1.36 million, which is 45% of PKA’s donations to defeat the measure.
“State legislators have been impugned by Protect Kentucky Access,” said Commonwealth Policy Center Executive Director Richard Nelson. “The legislature stood up for the intent of the Human Life Protection Act, which is to keep judges from inventing a right to abortion and also to stop taxpayer funded abortions in the Commonwealth.” Nelson applauded legislators for standing up to the well funded group and confronting what he called a scare campaign.
State Sen. Whitney Westerfield (R-Crofton) said Amendment #2 “isn’t a question about whether abortion be allowed or not. It’s not a question about the morality of abortion. But it’s a question on whether our constitution says that [abortion] is a right or not.”
Rep. Tate pointed out that Planned Parenthood profits off of performing abortions. According to their 2020-21 annual report, Planned Parenthood performed 383,460 abortions nationwide and received at least $191,730,000 from performing abortions.
“Protect Kentucky Access cannot be trusted. This is an out of state group led by a campaign manager from Kansas. They’re funded by out-of-state dollars and the organizations they represent richly profit from abortion on demand.” Nelson said. “Why should Kentuckians listen to an outside group that misleads voters in order to influence our laws?”
State Rep. Kim King (R- Harrodsburg) reminded voters to turn over their ballot to vote for Amendment #2 which is at the very end of their ballot. Amendment #2 says “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.”