Pro-Choice advocates pledge again to keep fighting for greater abortion access in the state.

State Representative Lindsey Burke, a Lexington Democrat and leader in the House, announced two bills aimed at reestablishing reproductive rights for Kentuckians.

Flanked by members of Planned Parenthood alliance, Burke says that her plan also protects those who travel out of state to get the procedure.

I'm here today to reintroduce two important bills, House bills for 18 and for 19, which I call the Northstar Bill and the Shield Bill.

Since the Dobbs decision in 2022, American women have effectively been stripped of control of their bodies and reproductive health.

States like Kentucky have been laying the groundwork to ensure that if such a decision came from the Supreme Court, our state would be ready to fully eliminate access to abortion care through a trigger ban.

13 states had a trigger ban at the time of the jobs decision.

A few enacted bans shortly thereafter, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Kentucky's trigger ban is one of the most restrictive in the country.

Kentucky's ban limits doctors to provide abortion care only when the life and health of the mother is at stake.

And it provides criminal and professional penalties for doctors who run afoul of this narrowly tailored loophole.

Doctors tell me and others that the penalties for them are so high that they fear providing care even when it's clear a woman is in crisis and needs an immediate intervention to protect her life or health.

They often delay care consulting with lawyers rather than other doctors, putting women's lives at risk in order to avoid punishment.

That's not how they want to practice medicine, and that's not what Kentucky deserves.

Let's be clear.

The abortion ban was designed to cause harm.

It was planned.

And now we are seeing the devastating consequences unfold in real time.

Since Roe fell, more than 65,000 rape related pregnancies have occurred in states with abortion bans and 3000 of them right here in Kentucky.

Let that sink in.

Kentucky now has the third highest rate of rape related pregnancies in the in the country among states that refuse to allow survivors the option of abortion care.

Surviving sexual violence is already a nightmare.

Forcing someone to remain pregnant after is a cruelty beyond measure.

Republican Planned Parenthood held a rally this afternoon in the state Capitol touting the reproductive freedom measures they hope to be considered.