Informed consent bill ushered into law

By Max Wise, 16th District Senator

As a person of faith, I feel it is a moral duty to always strive to promote and strengthen a culture that sanctifies life in our state and local communities—a culture that recognizes and values the lives of unborn children; regards them as the precious gifts they are; and honors the traditional family values of hard work, compassion, and patriotism which are the bedrock of our nation’s success.

Therefore, hearing of the revelations over the past week of the reckless disregard for human life displayed by the Planned Parenthood clinic in Louisville, which announced it had begun performing abortions in flagrant violation of state law, is a discouraging reminder of how much work there is to be done to foster a culture of life here in the Commonwealth.

That is why my Republican State Senate Caucus colleagues and I were so deeply honored to personally escort Senate Bill 4, our informed consent bill, to the office of Governor Bevin and to witness him immediately sign it into law.

This bill is an important step in the direction of nurturing a culture of life, and we are committed to continue this important work. The collaboration of the House on SB 4 raises our hopes of further bipartisan agreement on other important initiatives that are needed to create jobs and strengthen Kentucky families.

This week the Senate passed Senate Bill 7 with bipartisan support, which will now be taken up by the House. I personally sponsored this legislation and feel deeply committed to its passage.

SB 7 would establish a funding priority for the distribution of federal funds and would place state, county, and local community health clinics and federally qualified health centers first.

It would put abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood at the back of the line for any federal family planning money the state receives and ban Planned Parenthood from receiving any local or state tax dollars.

After the deplorable actions of Planned Parenthood were revealed in a series of undercover videos this past year, there is no longer any doubt that this unscrupulous organization is focused on the business of profiting from abortions and not on caring for the health and interests of women and families.

Another significant piece of legislation, SB 15, successfully moved through the State Senate. This bill protects the expression of religious and political viewpoints in public schools and public postsecondary institutions.

We continue to hear of cases from all over the country of school administrators restricting any public expression of religious belief by students.

I cosponsored this bill because I believe that if we are to rebuild the moral fabric of our country and succeed in creating a culture of life, we cannot allow overzealous administrators to cast the public expression of the moral and religious development of our young people as something that is somehow “inappropriate.”