Sen. Whitney Westerfield shared polling results with his colleagues in the state Senate Friday night. (LRC Public Information)
FRANKFORT — Republican Sen. Whitney Westerfield, a staunch opponent of abortion, filed a bill Wednesday aimed at protecting access to in vitro fertilization in Kentucky.
Senate Bill 373, which is not yet online, says any facility or “procedure related to in vitro fertilization shall not be liable” for damages “to a patient or patient’s surviving spouse or partner resulting from the loss of a human embryo, except in cases of negligence or wanton, willful, malicious or intentional misconduct.”?
It also protects health care providers “performing any procedure” related to IVF from being criminally charged. IVF is used to treat infertility, according to the Mayo Clinic, and can help other people trying to get pregnant to do so.?
This comes a day after Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, a Louisville Democrat, filed a similar bill in response to a ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court stating that frozen embryos are children. A few days before that, Louisville Democrat Rep. Daniel Grossberg filed House Bill 757 to protect access to IVF.?
Grossberg’s bill also states explicitly that “A fertilized human egg or human embryo that exists in any form outside of the uterus of a human body shall not be considered an unborn child, a minor child, a natural person, or any other term that connotes a human being for any purpose under state law.”
Some worry this ruling will deter people in Alabama from attempting to conceive children via IVF, which sometimes involves freezing embryos for future attempts at insemination. Several clinics in Alabama, including the University of Alabama Birmingham, have paused IVF treatments and embryo transfers in response to the ruling.
Westerfield’s filing comes as he and his wife are expecting triplets, he announced in January. He said at that time on the Senate floor that they adopted and transferred embryos for the pregnancy. His 6-year-old son is an “embryo adoption” baby, he said.?
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Sarah Ladd
Sarah Ladd is a Louisville-based journalist from West Kentucky who's covered everything from crime to higher education. She spent nearly two years on the metro breaking news desk at The Courier Journal. In 2020, she started reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic and has covered health ever since. As the Kentucky Lantern's health reporter, she focuses on mental health, LGBTQ+ issues, children's welfare, COVID-19 and more.
Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
