Clarifying when pregnancy terminations are medically necessary in light of Kentucky's near-total ban on abortion.

Dominated a legislative hearing this afternoon on a revised House.

Bill 414 aims to protect doctors from legal consequences when treating medically complex pregnancies.

The bill saw groups who are normally on opposite sides of the abortion debate come together.

Still, many Democrats on the committee said the measure doesn't go far enough.

Our Mackenzie Spink kicks off tonight's legislative update.

Today in committee, pro-choice and pro-life lawmakers could agree on one thing the current ban on abortion in Kentucky has muddied the waters for physicians treating women with complicated pregnancies may not have been the intention of the legislature to make it difficult to properly care for women who have pregnancy complications that have nothing to do with alleged selective abortion.

Nonetheless, that has been the outcome.

These are conditions that are life threatening.

And yet it's not always explicitly covered under our current statutes, that they're life threatening enough to permit the kind of care that evidence based practice requires.

I have a colleague who had a patient with an ectopic pregnancy, that was located in the cervix, that still had a fetal heartbeat.

And so under the current statutes, it was not at all clear to him that he could proceed with properly treating this patient.

Proponents of the committee changes made to House Bill 414, a bill addressing prenatal palliative care, say this measure will empower physicians to make the necessary medical decisions without fear of committing a felony, and it would assuage current fears pregnant people may have when seeking medical care.

What we have done is we have defined into into law should this pass what is not an abortion in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to ob GYNs in attendance testified against the bill, saying it doesn't do enough is still haven't solved the problems.

It still has.

You be waiting on death's door before you're allowed to get medical treatment, and I have to stand there and watch it happen.

You can't fix sepsis once it starts.

It's not an easy thing to do.

The amount of time it's going to take to change things in this state is going to drive the practitioners.

We need to take care of our citizens to other places that are more favorable.

Doctor Goldberg and the bill's sponsors said many times that this bill is only a starting place to address the complications brought on by the abortion ban, and that they are limited by the short session to make it a, quote, perfect bill.

The Democratic representatives who voted against the bill say that's the problem.

This is, at best a rough draft.

And part of the reason it is, at best, a rough draft is because not everyone was at the table.

And in spite of asking to have a seat at the table, there are people in this room, including myself, who did not get one.

The bill passed out of committee on party lines and will next head to the House floor for full consideration for Kentucky Edition.

I'm Mackenzie Spink.

Thank you.

Mackenzie.

Now we received this quote from Planned Parenthood Alliance advocates.

And they say this measure is, quote, a poorly thought out attempt to solve a very real problem where doctors cannot offer the lifesaving care they've been trying to provide due to Kentucky's abortion bans.

The bill fabricates medical terms and demonstrates why lawmakers should not be legislating what happens between a patient and a provider.

We need to restore access, not depend on unclear policies that even their supporters admit are incomplete and quote.