Victims of rape and incest would be eligible to access abortion in Kentucky under a new Democrat-backed bill filed Tuesday.

Senate Minority Whip David Yates, D-Louisville, is sponsoring “Hadley’s Law,” named after Hadley Duvall of Owensboro, a college senior who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather as a child.

“Those survivors — those women, even little girls, who were put through that, that choice was removed from them, who were violated — should not be continued to be validated by the state,” Yates said. “The commonwealth of Kentucky should not remove that choice. It should not continue to victimize those survivors.”

As Kentucky law stands now, abortion is illegal except in circumstances where it’s needed to save the life of a pregnant woman. The ban does not include exceptions for rape, incest or fetal abnormalities that are incompatible with life.

In addition to the exceptions for victims, Yates’ bill would allow abortions when there is a “lethal fetal anomaly or the fetus is incompatible with sustained life outside the womb.”

As the Herald-Leader previously reported, Kentucky’s existing abortion laws have forced pregnant women who need medically-recommended terminations — like those carrying a fetus with anencephaly, where the fetal brain and skull do not fully develop — to seek care outside of the commonwealth.

Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat a month into his second term, attended Yates’ announcement Tuesday, saying he “will sign it immediately when it reaches my desk.”

It’s unclear if the GOP-dominated legislature will pass Yates’ bill — or any other provision adding exceptions.

A similar bill filed in 2023 by Rep. Jason Nemes, the majority whip, did not receive so much as a committee assignment, let alone a vote.

Speaking on KET Monday evening, Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, and Speaker of the House David Osborne, R-Prospect, said their caucuses continue to discuss exceptions.

Stivers’ said Yates’ bill would receive a committee assignment.

“There is a lot of discussion,” Stivers said on Kentucky Tonight. “I do not know what the outcome will be.”

Osborne said the House Republicans have had “considerable debate” over exceptions and it “comes up frequently.”

“We’ve yet to reach consensus on what we’re capable of doing as a caucus moving forward, but we’re going to continue to have those conversations,” Osborne said. “I agree with Robert. I’m not sure where we’re going to end up on it ultimately.”

Yates said his bill was written in a way to give it the greatest possible chance of passage.

“This is so narrowly tailored, that most of those conversations I’ve had, I usually get a head nod, and say, ‘I understand, I agree,’” Yates said of talking to his Republican colleagues. “If they would take that, ‘Yes, I understand, I agree,’ and vote that way, this thing will pass.”

Duvall, who also joined Yates’ announcement, told her story in a reelection ad for Beshear that gained national attention for how Democrats could effectively message on abortion.

“I was raped by my stepfather after years of sexual abuse,” Hadley said directly to the camera in the 30-second ad. “I was 12.”

“Anyone who believes there should be no exceptions for rape and incest could never understand what it’s like to stand in my shoes,” she continued. “This is to you, Daniel Cameron: To tell a 12-year-old girl she must have the baby of her stepfather, who raped her, is unthinkable.

“I’m speaking out because women and girls need to have options. Daniel Cameron would give us none.”

Beshear went on to win re-election over then-Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a staunch defender of Kentucky’s existing abortion ban, by five percentage points.

Hadley said the ad she did allowed Kentuckians to put a face to the trauma that many women and girls go through, even if it hadn’t happened in their own families.

“It’s hard to believe that those things do happen behind closed doors,” she said.

“It’s hard to really paint the picture in your head that this is a reality for many people. … I think that putting my face with it, putting a human to it, is better than just saying, ‘Well, what if?’ Because I’m not a ‘what if.’ It happened.”

Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky State Director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, does not think an exceptions bill will pass this session.

Wieder also said exceptions, as policy, don’t work.

“Exceptions are not effective policy, especially in ban states, because there are all these laws and restrictions that criminalize providers. They put a lot of liability on hospitals, and they chill care,” Wieder said. “Providers are afraid. And more importantly, the lawyers of the hospitals and administrators are afraid, too.”

Wieder said 73 of Kentucky’s 120 counties don’t have practicing OBGYNs, and Kentucky’s ban makes it difficult to attract providers to residency programs or staying in state after completing residency.

“There are too many pieces of the past decade of barriers that have been put in place, and that is why these bills have been so tactical at stopping care in the state,” she said.

“An exemption that is very narrow and precise is not going to be hitting all of the cuts and the blocks that have been put into place, and while I want nothing more than to see some access returned to Kentucky, I feel that this is a bill in name only.”

Editor’s Note: There is no known family connection between the author of this story and Hadley Duvall.