The Kentucky Senate voted to prohibit the sale of fetal body parts on Wednesday. This is due to the latest reaction to the undercover Planned Parenthood videos in Texas that led to a grand jury indictment of two anti-abortion activists.
According to The Seattle Times, Republican State Senator Max Wise, who wrote Kentucky's bill, criticized the grand jury's decision and stated that the bill would protect the state from the "cold-hearted trading of body parts for money." The bill suggests that it a felony to sell all or part of a fetus that was part of an induced abortion.
Moreover, Republican Senate President Robert Stivers noted that the bill gives the state the opportunity to take legal action on such crimes if they were to happen. "It is against federal law to sell heroin. It is against federal law to commit a murder. It is against numerous laws at the federal level that we have corresponding and almost identical laws at the state level," Stivers claimed. "It then allows you to choose which form you plan to seek enforcement on."
ABC News mentioned that two Democrats senators, voted against the bill. Senator Perry Clark of Louisville claimed that selling fetal body parts is already banned by federal law and there is no evidence of it ever occurring anywhere else. The senator also added, "To do this is redundancy on top of redundancy. I'm going to vote 'no' on the measure even though I love all of the babies as much as anybody in this body."
Kentucky's bill was motivated by the undercover videos filmed by two anti-abortion activists that accused Planned Parenthood officials of selling fetal tissue for profit. A grand jury already cleared the Planned Parenthood this week and instead, it indicted the activists and accused them of tampering with government records and a misdemeanor charge related to acquiring of human body parts, as reported by Omaha.
But then, the Republicans still attempted to force a vote on a bill. This bill would require a woman to have a face-to-face check-up with a doctor at least 24 hours prior to the schedule of abortion.
Meanwhile, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives will take over with the bill, where anti-abortion bills have been gaining traction in the current weeks. And although the procedural voted failed, Democratic leaders think some version of the bill would pass the chamber.
