Fact check: Kentucky amendment requiring mothers to report pregnancy status wasn't real proposal

Sudiksha Kochi
Updated ·5 min read
303

The claim: A Kentucky amendment requires women to report the status of their pregnancy every month

In 2019, the Kentucky General Assembly passed a bill that would ban abortions if the landmark Roe v. Wade decision was overturned. The so-called trigger law went into effect on June 24, the day of the Supreme Court's ruling on Roe, and Kentucky judges temporarily blocked the law a few days after.

Some social media users are sharing a screenshot of an amendment to that bill requiring women to submit a "signed and notarized statement" every month indicating whether they are pregnant. The statement, signed by a practitioner, would be submitted to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services every month.

The amendment also states that any pregnant woman who doesn't comply will be fitted with an ankle monitor for the duration of the pregnancy and can be arrested and fined.

"I’ll be outta KY soon if this is true believe that, then outta US completely. I ain’t putting my daughters through this joke," reads a Facebook post with the screenshot shared June 26. "Not claiming for this to be accurate I was just sent this so I’m just stating I won’t be staying for it."

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The post generated more than 160 shares in less than a week. Similar posts have amassed hundreds of interactions on Facebook.

But this post is missing context.

Democratic Kentucky state Rep. Mary Lou Marzian told USA TODAY she introduced the amendment in 2019 as a satirical remark on the abortion ban. She said she never meant for it to be considered for passage, and it was never brought to a vote.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media users who shared the claim for comment.

Amendment to Kentucky's abortion law wasn't serious

The amendment in the Facebook post exists, but it wasn't a serious proposal. Marzian told USA TODAY she introduced the amendment in response to the abortion bill passed in 2019.

House Bill 148 bans abortion except in cases where a licensed physician deems it necessary to prevent the death of a mother or to prevent a "serious, permanent impairment of a life-sustaining organ."

But the amendment never actually advanced in the Kentucky legislature. Marzian said that an amendment can be added to a bill if the sponsor calls it on the House floor and it gets a majority of votes by representatives. But she never called for a vote.

In this case, Marzian said she wrote the amendment "to make a point of intrusiveness into women's lives," but never intended for it to be considered for passage.

"It was just to kind of show them how intrusive and how ridiculous they are," Marzian said. "I never meant for it to pass, of course."

Marzian also said the amendment was satirical in a June 27 tweet thread.

"There is no stronger supporter of reproductive freedom in the General Assembly than I am, and I want to be clear that my amendment was designed to highlight the war on women we have seen in the legislature the last five-plus years," she wrote.

Marzian told the Associated Press she "has filed several measures over the years that were satirical in nature and designed to make her political opponents look like 'morons.'"

USA TODAY has previously addressed out-of-context parody bills, such as a satirical bill introduced by a Pennsylvania state House Democrat requiring men over 40 or who have had third child six weeks earlier to get a vasectomy.

Our rating: Missing context

Based on our research, we rate MISSING CONTEXT the claim that a Kentucky amendment requires women to report the status of their pregnancy every month. Marzian said she introduced the amendment in 2019 as a satirical remark on the abortion ban, but she never intended for it to be considered for passage. It was never voted on.

Our fact-check sources:

Video: How does overturning of Roe v. Wade affect IVF treatment?

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Amendment to 2019 Kentucky abortion bill wasn't serious