Cameron flip-flops on rape and incest exceptions to Kentucky abortion ban

Kentucky Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron said Monday that he would sign legislation to provide abortion-ban exceptions for rape and incest, flip-flopping from his previous stance on Kentucky's near-total ban.

"If our legislature was to bring legislation before me that provided exceptions for rape and incest, I would sign that legislation," Cameron said Monday on the "Tony & Dwight" show on NewsRadio 840 WHAS. "There's no question about that."

The move comes weeks after a campaign ad aired by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's campaign knocking Cameron's abortion stance.

"When a woman or girl becomes pregnant from rape, the trauma is unimaginable," Jefferson County Prosecutor Erin White says in the ad. "Daniel Cameron thinks a 9-year-old rape survivor should be forced to give birth."

Cameron called the statements in the ad "shameful" on Monday.

"If someone rapes a child, we are going to go after them with the full force of the law and that should never happen," he said, also adding that Beshear was running a "smear campaign."

Prior to Monday, Cameron said multiple times that he supports the current law, which does not provide exceptions for rape or incest.

When asked about the potential for tweaking the law to include the exceptions in April, Cameron told LEX 18 that he would "continue to defend the law "as is" and would "not waiver" in his position.

Courtney Yopp Norris, Cameron's press secretary, did not directly answer a question from The Courier Journal about when Cameron changed his stance.

"Daniel Cameron is the pro-life candidate for Governor and supports the Human Life Protection Act," she said in her emailed response. "But if the situation in Kentucky were to change and the legislature brought him a bill to add exceptions for rape and incest, he would, of course, sign it."

Norris also said Beshear's perspectives on abortion were "extremist."

Beshear, who strongly opposed the near-total abortion ban when it passed, has said a law that bans abortion for rape and incest victims is "extremist."

Alex Floyd, the governor's campaign spokesperson, suggested Cameron's messages about the issue might have changed because of the election.

"Throughout his time in office, even before this campaign began, Daniel Cameron has made it clear that he supports Kentucky's extreme abortion ban with no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest," Floyd said Monday. "Either recent polling numbers have changed Cameron's core beliefs, or he is lying to Kentuckians now that he is seven weeks from an election."

Cameron also said that he supports birth control in the radio interview. The comment was made in response to a Rolling Stone article that found Cameron answered "yes" to a survey question by the Kentucky Right to Life about whether he would support legislation to criminalize abortion.

In a separation question, the organization defined abortion "to include the emergency contraception Plan B and three other types of birth control: Norplant, Depo Provera, and the pill," according to the article.

In her email Monday, Norris said, "It is also absolutely ridiculous for anyone to suggest Attorney General Cameron opposes or wants to criminalize birth control or contraception."

Addia Wuchner, the executive director of Kentucky Right to Life, said Monday there is still an unmistakeable difference in where Cameron and Beshear stand on abortion.

"As Attorney General Daniel Cameron has been a stalwart culture of life leader," she said in an emailed statement to The Courier Journal. "In the Kentucky Governor’s race there remains a clear distinction between Daniel Cameron and Andy Beshear."

Nearly all abortions have been banned in Kentucky since August 2022, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision due to Kentucky's "trigger law." The only exceptions to this ban are to save the life or prevent a disabling injury of the pregnant person.

There was a proposed exception for rape and incest in the legislature early this year, but it did not move forward.

Reporter Joe Sonka contributed to this story. Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at EMcCrary@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @ellie_mccrary.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: KY governor race: Cameron flips on rape, incest abortion exceptions