Kentucky General Assembly’s 2021 session ends

In the year of our Lord 2021, Kentucky still doubts the Cannabis Plant!

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For Immediate Release

March 30, 2021

Kentucky General Assembly’s 2021 session ends

FRANKFORT — The Kentucky General Assembly’s 2021 regular session was gaveled to a close this evening, ending a session in which lawmakers approved a state budget for the coming fiscal year and approved numerous other bills that will affect people throughout the state.

Most new laws approved this year will go into effect 90 days from today’s adjournment, except for those that specify a different effective date or include an emergency clause that makes them take effect the instant they become law.

Legislation approved by the 2021 General Assembly includes measures on the following topics:

Abortion. House Bill 91 will allow Kentucky voters to decide next year whether to add the following words to the state constitution: “To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.”

Adoption. House Bill 210 will ensure that employers offer parents adopting a child under the age of 10 the same leave policies that they provide to birth parents.

Asthma. Senate Bill 127 encourages schools to keep bronchodilator rescue inhalers in at least two locations and will require schools with inhalers to have policies and procedures in place regarding their use.

Attorney General. House Bill 2 will give the attorney general greater authority to enforce laws concerning abortion clinics in Kentucky.

Born-alive infants. Senate Bill 9 requires that medically appropriate and reasonable life-saving and life-sustaining medical care and treatment must not be denied to any born-alive infant, including cases in which an attempted abortion results in a live birth.

Billboards. House Bill 328 will re-establish the state’s regulatory authority for roadside billboards after a federal court ruling called the state’s prior regulations into question. It will put Kentucky’s statute back in place with changes intended to ensure its constitutionality.

Capitol security. Senate Bill 227 will require Kentucky State Police to brief the leadership of the General Assembly and the Legislative Research Commission on security matters relating to the State Capitol campus.

Child and new mother fatalities. House Bill 212 will require data in an annual state report on fatalities among children and new mothers to include information on demographics, race, income and geography associated with the fatalities.

Child protection. House Bill 254 will raise the penalty for possession or viewing of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor under the age of 12 years to a Class C felony. It will also raise the penalty for the distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance of a minor under the age of 12 years to a Class C felony for the first offense and a Class B felony for each subsequent offense.

Civil actions. House Bill 3 will allow civil actions regarding the constitutionality of a Kentucky statute, executive order, administrative regulation or order of any cabinet be filed outside of Franklin County.

Colon cancer. Senate Bill 16 will change the name of Kentucky’s Colon Cancer Screening Program to the Colon Cancer Screening and Prevention Program. A second provision will raise money for the screening program from the sale of special cancer prevention license plates. It will also require the Department for Medicaid Services to release statistics on cancer services related to colorectal cancer.

Commission on Race and Access to Opportunity. Senate Bill 10 will create the Commission on Race and Access to Opportunity. The group will conduct studies and research on issues where disparities may exist in areas including education, child welfare, health care, the economy and the criminal justice system.

Diabetes. House Bill 95 will help those with diabetes by capping cost-sharing requirements for prescription insulin at $30 per 30-day supply in state-regulated health plans.

Driver safety. House Bill 439 will require a vision test renew a driver’s license, starting in 2024.

Education. House Bill 563 will give families more options when making decisions about schools. The bill will allow the use of education opportunity accounts, a type of scholarship, for educational expenses and, for students in some of the state’s largest counties, for private school tuition. Individuals or businesses who donate to organizations that issue education opportunity accounts will be eligible for a tax credit. The measure will also require a board of education to adopt a nonresident pupil policy to govern terms under which the district allows enrollment of nonresident pupils.

Elections. House Bill 574 will make some of the election procedures implemented last year to accommodate voting during the pandemic permanent. The measure will offer Kentuckians three days – including a Saturday – leading up to an election day for early, in-person voting. It will allow county clerks to continue to offer ballot drop boxes for those who do not wish to send their ballots back by mail. It will also allow counties to offer voting centers where any registered voter in the county could vote.

Ethics. Senate Bill 6 will create standards for the ethical conduct of transition team members of all newly elected statewide officeholders. The standards include identifying any team member who is or has been a lobbyist. It will require disclosure of current employment, board member appointments and any non-state sources of money received for their services. It will also prohibit the receipt of nonpublic information that could benefit a transition team member financially.

Firefighters. House Bill 44 will allocate funding to help full-time and volunteer firefighters experiencing post-traumatic stress injuries or disorders receive proper care from licensed mental health professionals.

First responders. Senate Bill 169 will give first responders injured in the line of duty access to more disability benefits. Line of duty or duty-related disability benefits payable to a member of any of the systems administered by the Kentucky Retirement Systems will increase from 25% to 75% of the member’s monthly average pay.

Fish and Wildlife Commission. House Bill 394 will ensure that the state’s Fish and Wildlife Resources Commission will have sole authority to appoint the commissioner of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

Gaming. Senate Bill 120 will define pari-mutuel wagering in state law in a manner intended to ensure the legality of certain historical horse racing games that are often compared to slot machines.

General Assembly. House Bill 4 will let voters decide next year on a proposed amendment to the Kentucky Constitution that would allow the General Assembly to convene an additional 12 legislative days each year upon a joint proclamation from the Senate President and House Speaker.

Groceries. House Bill 190 will exempt legally permitted food service establishments from any state or local laws and administrative regulations that prohibit the sale of grocery items such as bread, milk, and other staples.

Illegal dumping. Senate Bill 86 will designate 100 percent of a new open dumping fine to be paid to the county where the violation occurred.

Immunizations. Senate Bill 8 would create exemptions from any mandatory immunizations for those who object based on religious beliefs. It also prohibits orders during an epidemic from requiring the immunization of people who object based on conscientiously held beliefs or the written opinion of the person’s physician that immunization would be injurious to the person’s health.

Inmate care. Senate Bill 84 will ban jails, penitentiaries, local and state correctional facilities, residential centers and reentry centers from placing inmates who are pregnant or within the immediate postpartum period in restrictive housing, administrative segregation, or solitary confinement. It will grant an inmate who gives birth 72 hours with a newborn before returning to the correctional facility and will offer six weeks of postpartum care. It also mandates that incarcerated pregnant women have access to social workers and any community-based programs to facilitate the placement and possible reunification of their child.

In-person instruction. House Bill 208 called on public schools to reopen to in-person instruction in some capacity by March 29. The legislation set the expectation that public schools would be open to in-person instruction at least four days a week for the remainder of the 2020-21 academic year. Schools have the option to operate under a hybrid model where students spend part of the week attending in-person classes and the rest from home. The bill requires schools to allow a student to attend in-person classes at least twice a week under the hybrid model. It also limits the remaining amount of nontraditional instruction days school districts are allowed to use.

Kentucky-grown products. Senate Bill 102 will include Asian Carp, paddlefish, or swordfish in the definition of “Kentucky-grown agricultural product.”

Kindergarten. House Bill 382 will make $140 million available for full-day kindergarten in Kentucky schools. The legislation also appropriates money allocated to the state from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to projects including: $575 million to pay back the interest and principal on the federal unemployment insurance trust fund loan Kentucky took out during the pandemic; $842,400 for Kentucky’s nature preserves; $50,000 for the Kentucky African American Heritage Commission; and $3.3 million to reopen the Northern Kentucky Regional Medical Examiner’s Office. The bill also allocated an additional $50 million for broadband expansion through ARPA funds.

Late fees. House Bill 272 will allow water districts to impose a 10 percent late fee and cut off service for nonpayment of bills. Customers who receive financial assistance for their bills will be exempt.

Livestock. House Bill 229 will make someone guilty of criminal mischief for intentionally or wantonly causing damage to livestock.

Living organ donors. House Bill 75 will prohibit certain insurance coverage determinations based upon the status of an individual as a living organ donor. It will also encourage the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to develop educational materials relating to living organ donation.

Medicaid. Senate Bill 55 will prohibit copays for Medicaid beneficiaries.

Microbreweries. Senate Bill 15 will allow microbreweries to sell and deliver up to 2,500 barrels to any retailer under certain restrictions. It will also require arbitration for some disputes with distributors.

Newborn safety. House Bill 155 will allow the use of a “newborn safety device” when a newborn is being anonymously surrendered by a parent at a participating staffed police station, fire station, or hospital. The device allows a parent surrendering an infant to do so safely using a receptacle that triggers an alarm once a newborn is placed inside so that medical care providers can immediately respond and provide care to the child.

No-knock warrants. Senate Bill 4 will limit and set guidelines for the use of no-knock warrants, which allow officers to enter a premises without notice. Under the legislation, such warrants will be allowed in limited instances if someone was in immediate danger or in other cases, such as those involving violent crimes or terrorism. The measure also specifies it would be perjury if an officer made a false statement in an application for a no-knock warrant.

Operational guidelines. House Bill 1 created a framework for businesses, local governments, schools and nonprofits to operate during COVID-19 restrictions. It suspends interest on unpaid unemployment insurance contributions until next year. It also provides guidelines for noncustodial parental visitation during the state of emergency and will allow each resident at long-term care facilities designate an “essential personal care visitor” that will be exempt from visitor restrictions. (This is one of several new laws being challenged in court by the governor.)

Organ and tissue donation. Senate Bill 12 prohibits a person from selling or purchasing human organs or tissues and prohibits for-profit entities from procuring any eye, cornea, eye tissue, or corneal tissue. The measure is intended to preserve the nonprofit nature of human eye tissue donations.

Oversight and investigations. House Bill 6 will change the name of the Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee to the Oversight and Investigations Committee. The goal is to make it the main investigative committee in the General Assembly. It will also, for the first time, define the committee’s subpoena powers.

Police standards. Senate Bill 80 will strengthen the police decertification process by expanding the number of acts considered professional wrongdoing. Such acts include unjustified use of excessive or deadly force and engaging in a sexual relationship with a victim. The bill also will require an officer to intervene when another officer is engaging in the use of unlawful and unjustified excessive or deadly force. It will also set up a system for an officer’s automatic decertification under certain circumstances and will prevent an officer from avoiding decertification by resigning before an internal investigation is complete.

Public records. House Bill 312 will limit the ability of people who do not live, work or conduct business in Kentucky to obtain records through the state’s open records law. These restrictions do not apply to out-of-state journalists. The legislation specifies that open records requests can be made via email. It also calls for a standardized form to be developed for open records requests, though it’s not required to be used. It will allow the legislative branch to make final and unappealable decisions regarding open records requests it receives. The bill will allow government agencies up to five days to respond to open records requests.

Recovery Ready Communities. House Bill 7 will establish the Advisory Council for Recovery Ready Communities. The council will be responsible for establishing a “Kentucky Recovery Ready Community Certification Program” to provide a measure of a city’s or county’s substance use disorder recovery programs and to assure citizens and businesses that a city or county is committed to ensuring the availability of high-quality recovery programs in its community.

Sexual abuse. Senate Bill 52 will amend third-degree rape, third-degree sodomy and second-degree sexual abuse statutes so law enforcement officers could be charged with those crimes if they engage in sexual acts with a person under investigation, in custody or under arrest.

Sexual assault. House Bill 472 will extend the statute of limitations for misdemeanor sexual assault offenses against minors from five years to 10. It also extends that window to 10 years on civil claims for the same course of conduct.

State budget. House Bill 192 contains the state spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The plan will mostly continue spending in the manner of the current fiscal year’s budget, with some modifications. It includes some structural changes to the budget, such as putting more money in the rainy day fund and ensuring that funds meant for the state Road Fund aren’t diverted to other matters.

Supplementary education. Senate Bill 128 will allow students to retake or supplement courses that were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic during the current school year.

Teacher retirement. House Bill 258 will create a new hybrid tier for the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System that contains elements of both defined benefit and defined contribution plans. This change will affect new hires starting in 2022, not current teachers. The bill changes when those teachers could retire. Instead of retiring in 27 years, new hires under this tier will have to work 30 years and be at least 57 to be eligible for retirement.

Telehealth. House Bill 140 will permit telehealth services that were allowed to expand due to COVID-19 pandemic to remain in place even after the pandemic ends.

Theft. House Bill 126 will increase the threshold of felony theft from $500 to $1,000. It will also allow law enforcement to charge members of organized shoplifting rings with a felony if a member steals a total of $1,000 worth of merchandise over 90 days.

Tobacco settlement funds. Senate Bill 3 will move the organization that decides how to spend much of Kentucky’s share of the Tobacco Master Agreement settlement money from the governor’s office to the Department of Agriculture.

To-go alcohol.  Senate Bill 67 will allow certain restaurants to sell alcohol, including cocktails, with to-go and delivery orders when purchased with a meal. The Kentucky Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is directed to promulgate regulations for the implementation of the bill.

Unemployment insurance overpayment. Senate Bill 7 will allow the state to waive unemployment insurance overpayment debts that occurred between Jan. 27 and Dec. 31 of last year if the overpayment is not the fault of the recipient and if requiring repayment would be “contrary to equity and good conscience,” according to the legislation.

U.S. Senators. Senate Bill 228 will change the way vacancies are filled for a U.S. senator from Kentucky. The bill will require the governor to choose a replacement from a list of three nominees selected by the state party of the departing senator.

Victim privacy. House Bill 273 will exclude from the open records act photographs or videos that depict a person’s death, killing, rape, sexual assault or abuse. The act is named in honor of Bailey Nicole Holt and Preston Ryan Cope, who were killed in the 2018 Marshall County High School shooting at the age of 15.

Worker safety regulations. House Bill 475 will prohibit the Kentucky Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board or the secretary from adopting or enforcing any occupational safety and health administrative regulation that is more stringent than the corresponding federal provision.

Youth camps. Senate Bill 66 will establish employment and background check standards for staff members working or volunteering at youth camps.

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In Kentucky, This Is What the War on Abortion Rights Looks Like

By Lucy Westcott On 4/16/17 at 8:20 AM

Saturday is usually the busiest day for protests outside EMW Women’s Clinic in Louisville, the last remaining abortion provider in Kentucky that came dangerously close to shutting down last week.

As women walk to and from the clinic and the parking lot, volunteers dressed in bright orange vests walk alongside them, forming a human barrier against an angry and increasingly violent mass of protesters yelling hateful remarks and waving signs. One protester likes to shove her sign into the escorts’ faces. Another, known as Backwards Bob, preaches at the women as he walks backwards in front of them, forcing himself into their line of vision.

Kate Lafferty, a graduate student and volunteer at the clinic, says escorts are posted at different points in a one-block radius around the clinic where patients walk, including on street corners or in an alleyway that leads to a parking garage. On a Saturday in late March, Lafferty was one of 45 escorts at EMW protecting the women seeking abortions from roughly 75 yelling, crying and preaching protesters.

“We’re always in sight of one another,” she says. “You see the familiar [protesters] and it’s definitely shocking.”

A federal judge ruled this week that the Kentucky clinic serving thousands of women annually can stay open—for now. But state lawmakers are looking to shut down the facility in a move that would make Kentucky, which already has some of the strictest laws limiting women’s reproductive healthcare, the only state in the nation without an abortion clinic.

The battle in Kentucky reflects renewed efforts across the nation from Republican-led state legislatures and a GOP majority in Congress to limit women’s right to abortion access. The assault is also coming from the new White House, where President Donald Trump signed a bill Thursday allowing states to withhold federal Title X family planning funding from Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide abortions.

“Those of us who have been involved with access to abortion since the 1970s know that we’re more facing pre-Roe v. Wade days now than making any progress,” says Kate Cunningham, president of A Fund, an all-volunteer organization that has been helping Kentucky women pay for abortions since 1993. “Before Roe, there were women driving through the night to take women from Louisville to New York to access abortion. We hope and trust we don’t have to go back there, to those days, but that’s where we are. It’s so tough.”

In Kentucky, lawmakers argue that the Louisville clinic violates state requirements that such facilities have emergency medical agreements with a hospital and an ambulance service. Abortion rights activists note these kind of rules are excessive and not medically necessary, and in March, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Louisville clinic to try to keep it open.

U.S. District Judge Greg Stivers issued a temporary restraining order in March against the state of Kentucky, which had threatened to shut down the clinic on April 3. That move would have made Kentucky the first state without a legal provider. Stivers then signed an order Monday to keep the clinic open until the lawsuit is resolved, and the clinic’s license has been renewed through May 31, 2018. The trial is set to begin in the first week of September.

If Kentucky does become the first state to lose all providers, it would result in even bigger barriers for women, says Elizabeth Nash, state issues experts at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights think tank based in New York. Not only will women have to travel longer distances to receive care, but clinics in surrounding states will have a bigger demand that will likely result in longer waiting times for an extremely time-sensitive procedure.

“Travel costs money, so do hotel rooms,” says Nash. “Not everybody gets paid time off. Essentially, you would be losing out on earning money. It balloons.”

But order or not, getting a termination remains an enormous challenge in Kentucky. Lafferty, 29, has been escorting at EMW for the past four months with her husband, Patrick Danner. Originally from New Jersey, she says it was a jolt to arrive in Kentucky and see how difficult it is to obtain an abortion compared to her home state and most of the northeastern United States.

“Having people preaching at you, holding up signs,” she says. “That was definitely a shock to me.”

Lafferty says she’s been called a murderer and told by protesters that women’s bodies are only good for one thing: reproducing. “Clients are quite shocked” by it, too, she says.

Fausta Luchini, 61, has volunteered as a clinic escort at EMW for the past eight years. During that time, she has seen the situation outside the clinic deteriorate as protesters have become increasingly aggressive. Photos sent by Luchini to Newsweek show protesters shoving large signs in escorts’ face, or getting uncomfortably close.

“The goal of escorts is to hold space for the client so the client is empowered to do what they want to do. That means that we really ignore, or do the best we can to ignore, the protesters,” says Luchini. “Many clients are really upset. Being with somebody and doing that walk with somebody who is crying, who is just in distress; emotionally, it can be difficult that way.”

“Chasers,” or protesters who follow patients and talk, preach or cry at them, all while invading their personal space, are another issue for Luchini and the women she escorts. “One in particular likes to walk in front of them and walk backwards,” she says. “We call him Backwards Bob.”

Once, the protesters discovered Luchini’s name, Googled her and found her mother’s obituary, which was read out to her during an escorting session.

“That was kind of bizarre,” she says. “That was unsettling.”

Related: Kentucky’s last clinic saved from ‘imminent closure’

Part of Luchini’s job as an escort is figuring out the safest way to move patients from their car to the clinic while avoiding protesters who have become increasingly aggressive. Although there’s an eight-foot safety barrier between the clinic and the protesters, EMW opens onto the street, meaning demonstrators can essentially stand anywhere except inside the building. The majority of the patients Luchini escorts come from Kentucky, although some travel from Indiana, which has 11 abortion clinics in all, but only 44 percent of all women live in counties with such facilities.

A spokesperson for the Psalms 82 (P82), a Christian anti-abortion group with a strong presence outside the Louisville clinic, tells Newsweek that its members are “not surprised at all by the judge’s order to keep [EMW] open. We expected it.” The group is known to film clients as they go to their appointments, says Lafferty.

Nash says Kentucky is one of seven states that have a single abortion provider left, joining West Virginia, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Mississippi and Wyoming. It’s part of a decades-long decline in abortion providers, whether it’s due to better access to contraceptives — and therefore fewer unintended pregnancies and fewer abortions — or state-level regulations that have kept new doctors from becoming abortion providers.

“The political landscape has changed in Kentucky and the Legislature has now made it its business to not only restrict abortion access through legislation, but also restrictions to family planning services,” says Nash, citing a recent law in Kentucky allowing the state to withhold state funds to clinics, including Planned Parenthood, that provide only family planning services. “There’s a real landscape change for reproductive health in Kentucky.”

Kentucky women unable to pay for a termination in their home state can obtain help from Cunningham’s A Fund. Last year, the organization helped 416 Kentucky women pay for abortions in seven states, including Kentucky; in 2015, that number was 314, says Cunningham. The average fiscal assistance provided by A Fund last year was $114, ranging from payments of $50 to $2,000.

“Many women find it more geographically convenient to go out of state for an abortion than come to Louisville,” says Cunningham.

Women in western Kentucky might go to Granite City, Illinois, while those in Bowling Green might go to Nashville, Tennessee. Women in northern Kentucky tend to travel to Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio for their abortions, and women in southeastern Kentucky go to Knoxville, Tennessee.

“Those states also have rather arduous so-called informed consent requirements, so women have to go and stay for a couple of days or make a couple of trips,” says Cunningham. “There’s nothing easy about it.”

Don Cox, a lawyer for EMW, is looking ahead to the first week of September, when the court case is set to begin. He says it’s “irrational that we should have to waste our time and effort dealing with stupid regulations and statutes like these.”

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Cunningham, in the meantime, says she’s working with escorts and others to try and establish at 20-ft safety zone at the clinic’s entrance to better protect the “heroic” volunteers. Until then, EMW escorts will continue donning orange vests and walking women to the clinic doors, protecting their constitutional right to have a termination.

“When a woman comes to EMW to get an abortion, she has already overcome some tremendous barriers,” says Luchini. “The protesters are just the last hurdle. They don’t see themselves that way, but that’s all they are.”

“It’s the last thing they gotta conquer.”

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Even Nuns Aren’t Exempt From Obamacare’s Birth-Control Mandate

A federal appeals court rules that the Little Sisters of the Poor received a sufficient religious accommodation.

Emma Green

• Jul 14, 2015

They’re the perfect plaintiffs: elderly nuns who wear habits and care for the poor and elderly. When the Little Sisters of the Poor filed a complaint against the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate in 2013, they joined a host of other religious charities and colleges that claimed the law placed a burden on their free exercise of their religion. But the sisters stood out: If nuns claim a law violates their conscience, who’s to tell them they’re wrong?

On Tuesday, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals did just that. A three-member panel of judges ruled that the Obama administration has come up with a sufficient accommodation for religious organizations like the Little Sisters: If they object to providing insurance coverage to employees who want to buy birth control, organizations can sign a two-page form stating that objection. That’s it—from there, the administration will arrange for a third-party provider to make sure the employee can get coverage. But the Little Sisters, along with schools like Notre Dame and other religious organizations, claimed that signing that piece of paper was the moral equivalent of condoning birth control.

“More than a few people who contacted us about our lawsuit have asked us something like this: ‘You are celibates and you take care of the elderly, so obviously contraception has nothing to do with you; why have you taken on this issue?,’” Sister Constance Carolyn of the Little Sisters wrote in an email in March. “As Little Sisters of the Poor we vow to devote our lives specifically to the service of the elderly poor, but the unborn are no less worthy of reverence and protection than the frail seniors we serve every day.”

The Sisters and other religious non-profit groups have claimed protection under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, which prohibits the federal government from placing a “substantial burden” on a person or group’s exercise of religion. While recognizing the sincerity of the sisters’ claim, the Court ruled that the accommodation “does not substantially burden their religious exercise under RFRA or infringe upon their First Amendment rights.”

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