Beshear to lawmakers: Kentucky's fetal heartbeat abortion bill is unconstitutional [View all]

FRANKFORT -- Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear sent the legislature’s top two leaders a letter Thursday informing them that he thinks a bill in this year’s General Assembly that would ban abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected is unconstitutional.

“The Supreme Court of the United States has uniformly held — in no fewer than eight separate decisions — that neither Congress nor a state legislature can ban abortions before viability,” Beshear said in the letter.

Beshear, who is a Democratic candidate for governor, said he offered the legal opinion because it is his job.

“As attorney general, it is my duty to enforce the Constitution and advise lawmakers of any legislation that is clearly unconstitutional, as I have done many times over the last three years,” Beshear told the Herald-Leader. “My office reviewed Senate Bill 9 and today, as part of my duty as attorney general, communicated that this law is unconstitutional.”

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article225338850.html