Kentucky Senate passes bill banning abortions after 15 weeks

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky lawmakers took another step Wednesday toward banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with an eye toward a looming U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion rights.

The bill, which won Senate passage 31-6, is modeled after a Mississippi law under review by the nation’s high court in a case that could dramatically limit abortion rights in the United States. The Kentucky measure next advances to the House. Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers.

By taking preemptive action, Kentucky’s stricter ban would “withstand challenge and be immediately enforceable” if the Mississippi law were to be upheld, said Republican Sen. Max Wise, the bill’s lead sponsor.

Kentucky law currently bans abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Two states have enacted 15-week abortion bans — Mississippi and Louisiana, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

The Louisiana law hasn’t taken effect pending the outcome of the legal fight over the Mississippi law, the group said. Florida lawmakers recently passed a 15-week abortion ban. The governor there previously signaled his support for the proposal and is expected to sign it into law.

In Kentucky, lawmakers have voted repeatedly to place more restrictions and conditions on abortion since the GOP assumed complete control of the legislature after the 2016 election.

Unlike other abortion bills, the proposed 15-week ban sparked little Senate discussion Wednesday.

“We don’t know what the Supreme Court will decide," Democratic Sen. Reginald Thomas said in opposing the bill. “And if we pass this legislation and the Supreme Court decides to affirm the 50-year-old principles of Roe v. Wade, then this bill will otherwise be held unconstitutional.

"So I think it would...