The Honorable Andy Beshear Governor of Kentucky 700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 100 Frankfort, Kentucky 40601 Re: Request to veto House Bill 90 March 14, 2025 Dear Governor Beshear, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates - Kentucky strongly requests that you veto House Bill 90, the extreme anti-abortion policy legislators rushed through with limited transparency or opportunity from medical professionals. The substitute language endangers Kentuckians’ lives by forcing pregnant patients into medical crises before allowing abortion care and continuing to limit providers exercising their best medical judgment. This bill does not improve patient safety, provide clarity for medical professionals, or improve patient outcomes. Kentuckians deserve better. The substitute language in HB 90 contains multiple medical falsehoods, unclear language, and does nothing to bring much-needed clarity to the state’s abortion bans. Since Kentucky’s abortion bans went into effect in 2022, providers have been pleading for clarity on how to treat their patients in emergency situations and when facing pregnancy complications. This bill does not meet that goal. Furthermore, medical professionals were not engaged in the drafting of this language, which was introduced at the last minute and rushed through the process without opportunity for meaningful engagement. If the bill’s proponents were engaging in good-faith efforts to improve the law, frontline medical providers and hospital administrators who face these decisions would be embraced, rather than locked out of the process. HB 90 relies on ideologically driven terminology that ignores evidence-based standards of care that is rejected by legitimate medical organizations. The substitute language inserted into HB 90 codifies so-called “separation procedures,” language that is intentionally promoted by anti-abortion organizations to deny that abortion is health care. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the leading voice on evidence-based obstetrics and gynecology, note that “this phrase is used by abortion opponents to justify or to mandate performing medical procedures that carry more risk for the patient, such as cesarean deliveries or inductions of labor.” Carving out “separating a pregnant woman from her unborn child” as distinct from abortion care is medically unsound, betrays science and medicine, and does nothing to provide the clarity health care providers need when providing care. 1. ACOG Guide to Language and Abortion: https://www.acog.org/contact/media-center/abortion-language-guide While the bill’s supporters contend that this language brings clarity and assurances that miscarriage management is allowed under Kentucky law, this bill actually introduces more restrictive language governing the provision of miscarriage management. HB 90 allows “separation” for “lifesaving miscarriage management,” meaning that patients must be in a life-threatening condition to receive care. Similarly, care is only permitted for sepsis or hemorrhaging “when a miscarriage results in a life-threatening infection or excessive bleeding,” again forcing providers to wait until their patients are suffering and in danger before providing evidence-based care. We have heard countless stories throughout the country of patients seeking miscarriage management because their condition is not sufficiently life-threatening — this bill would do nothing to improve access to care for such patients. Lastly, the replacement of “good faith clinical judgment” with “reasonable medical judgment” may not initially seem troubling, but in actuality this vague language defers to courts and physicians who were not part of treating the patient to determine what is reasonable medical judgment. The current standard of “good faith medical judgment” recognizes that health care providers should be able to use their best judgment to treat their patients, which is particularly critical in emergency situations. Reasonable medical judgment, on the other hand, leaves physicians vulnerable to being convicted in court if the court relies on medical professionals selected by the prosecution who may disagree with the care provided to the patient. This new language mirrors the exemptions language found in Texas’s abortion law, which is repeatedly cited as one of the most extreme and dangerous abortion bans in the country. Medical professionals are highly educated in their field of study and we must trust their expertise when it comes to providing care to their patients. This legislation is a clear example of how lawmakers simply do not know better than medical providers and their last minute attempts to add clarity will lead to more confusion and chaos across the Commonwealth, putting pregnant patients at real and significant risk. We are already facing an unprecedented maternal and infant health crisis in the Commonwealth, we cannot afford any more chaos. People will die. Kentuckians deserve real solutions, not rushed legislation introduced at the last minute. These efforts to slip through broad, harmful policies reveal a callous disregard for people’s lives. Every Kentuckian — rural or urban, young or old, LGBT+ or otherwise — should have access to dignified, compassionate, and evidence-based medical care. Please do not let this reckless and deceptive behavior go unchecked and veto House Bill 90. Sincerely, Tamarra Wieder Kentucky State Director Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates - Kentucky