Yesterday, Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams ceremoniously signed House Bill 90.

The bill establishes freestanding birth centers and supporters argued it clarifies medical, maternity, maternal health treatment and perinatal palliative care, which is care provided to families who get a fatal or life threatening diagnosis for newborn.

About a year ago last June, Doctor Jeffrey Goldberg, who is an OB in Kentucky on the other side of the aisle from me, contacted me and he said, hey, Jason, we need to work together.

There are some states where some women who present with pregnant women who present with their lives in jeopardy are in danger.

And this can happen in Kentucky.

And I said, well, we've got a life of the mother protections in Kentucky law.

And he said, well, doctors are scared of them.

I brought them to the table and I said, let's figure this out.

Let's get the language right.

And groups that had not really worked well together in the past got got together.

And they were unified in the purpose of protecting Kentucky lives.

And so there was disagreement here and there and moving commas around and this, that and the other.

But at the end of the day, we had a bill that could survive.

This was a piece of legislation, of collaboration.

A monumental task.

It is a collaboration.

It is a melding together of several pieces of legislation.

It is a bill that was the anchor bill, House Bill 90, and in essence, its companion bill, Senate Bill 17.

And now this bill sponsors a graciously worked to to make House Bill 90 to anchor it with withholds that holds all to perinatal palliative care and also working with Acog to clarify the language so that it is perfectly clear what is and what is not an intentional abortion, and making sure that the women in Kentucky have the maternal care that they need.

Sometimes there's a baby that doesn't make it to their day of, live birth and or dies shortly after.

So that palliative care still honors and loves life so deeply.

To be able to so clearly declare that in the state of Kentucky, I believe, holds Kentucky up as a model for truly loving life, loving mother, loving father, and loving baby.

The past eight years have been a good time to be pro-life in Kentucky.

As just some examples the General Assembly enacted.

And I was proud to sign a law to require parental consent for a minor to get an abortion.

They enacted a heartbeat bill.

They enacted a trigger law to take effect upon the reversal of Roe versus Wade, which, of course, blessedly came to pass.

House Bill 90 shows that our legislators are just as committed to mothers as they are to pre-born children.

In Kentucky, we do have exceptions an abortion occurs when a child maybe is an ectopic pregnancy that is putting a mother in grave danger.

There are a number of other exceptions clearly spelled out now in legislation.

So it provides a degree of clarity on what that exception is.

I just want to thank all the medical professionals who came to us to solve a problem that they saw brewing in Kentucky, and we very, gladly jumped on board to try to correct, any, any problems that they saw.

And, you know, of course, to protect our moms and protect our babies.

And that is exactly what House Bill 90 does.

It really will save lives.

And so knowing that it will save lives is extremely gratifying.

And it is exactly why we serve more.

Freestanding birthing centers are expected to be more available around Kentucky soon, as well as more access to midwives and doulas.