Opponents of Kentucky abortion amendment have raised $3 million, outstripping other side

Opponents of a ballot measure to eliminate abortion rights from the Kentucky Constitution have raised $3 million in an election fight that could determine whether abortion remains outlawed in the state.

Campaign finance reports filed Wednesday show that the abortion rights group Protect Kentucky Access, which opposes the amendment, has raised about five times as much money as amendment supporters Yes for Life, which reported a total $595,000 by the period ending Oct. 9.

The proposed amendment, which voters must approve or reject, declares that nothing in the state constitution provides a right to abortion. It has kindled growing interest since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal right to abortion in June, ending access in Kentucky.

With the Nov. 8 election less than four weeks away, Protect Kentucky Access, a coalition of groups that support abortion rights, reported raising more than $1.25 million since its last report was filed Sept. 14, for a total of $3 million.

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Yes for Life, a coalition of anti-abortion groups that support the amendment, reported raising $160,000 in the last 30 days, bringing its total fundraising to $575,000, with the single largest donor in the past 30 days the Kentucky Baptist Convention at $206,000. That was offset by $50,000 apparently refunded to the Kentucky Right to Life Educational Fund.

That puts Yes for Life behind opponents of the amendment who already have begun airing television ads against it across Kentucky-area media markets. Protect Kentucky Access launched a new TV ad this week featuring a grandmother who calls Kentucky's abortion ban "an extreme measure made by politicians."

The amendment is among more than a dozen measures passed in recent years by the Republican-controlled Kentucky General Assembly. Because it changes the state constitution, it requires voter approval.

Addia Wuchner, chairwoman of the Yes for Life Alliance, said she's satisfied with her group's fundraising thus far and noted that organizations outside Kentucky are among major contributors to the opponents' campaign.

"Our money has come from within the state, our partnership organizations and our committed donors," she said. "We expected to be outspent."

Rachel Sweet, campaign manager of Protect Kentucky Access, said 800 "grassroots" Kentuckians contributed during the latest 30-day period where $1.25 million was raised, adding that "momentum and fundraising are on our side."

"The rights of Kentucky women to make their own private medical decisions free from government interference are on the line this November," Sweet said in a news release.

While not yet as costly as the $22 million campaign in Kansas, where a similar amendment was defeated in August, the price tag on Kentucky's ballot measure campaign is rising fast with the election still 26 days away.

And the stakes are high for both sides with abortion no longer available in Kentucky, except for medical emergencies, since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade on June 24 and ended abortion as a federal constitutional right.

Major donors to Protect Kentucky Access in this reporting cycle include $500,000 from the Advocacy Action Fund, a new, California-based nonprofit group, $250,000 from philanthropist Michael Bloomberg, the former New York city mayor, and $125,000 from the group Families United for Freedom. Scores of individual donors also contributed amounts ranging from $100 to $1,000 or more, many of them Kentucky physicians, lawyers or health workers.

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Planned Parenthood affiliates and the American Civil Liberties Union have provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in previous donations to Protect Kentucky Access.

Major donors to Yes for Life have been Right to Life affiliates, the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, the Kentucky Baptist Convention and the Family Foundation of Kentucky.

Amendment opponents on Wednesday reported having spent about $1.5 million in the past month, mostly on advertisements, with more than $917,000 cash on hand left. Amendment supporters reported spending just $52,000 in the past month, with $497,000 left to spend.

Yes for Life members include Kentucky Right to Life, the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, the Kentucky Baptist Convention, the Family Foundation, the Commonwealth Policy Center and Sisters for Life.

Protect Kentucky Access members include Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, the Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, the Fairness Campaign, Sister Song — a reproductive justice collective for women of color — the Kentucky Black Birth Alliance and Sexy Sex-Ed, which promotes information about sex and sexuality.

Both groups formed last year in anticipation of the Nov. 8 ballot measure.

Kentucky's one-sentence measure, which will appear on the ballot as Constitutional Amendment 2, states:

"To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion."

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Abortion access ended in Kentucky after the Supreme Court ruling because of a state "trigger law" banning abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest. It permits abortion only to save the life of a patient or prevent disabling injury.

But a legal challenge is pending seeking to have abortion declared a right under Kentucky's constitution in hopes of overturning the trigger law and other state restrictions on abortion.

With abortion no longer a federally protected right, each side recognizes the constitutional amendment represents their best chance to either preserve or end abortion as a state right.

The pitched battle over Kentucky's amendment has been compared to a similar fight in Kansas, where voters in the reliably red state in August surprised observers by rejecting by 18 percentage points a similar measure to end abortion as a constitutional right.

In Kansas, the campaign cost around $22 million with opponents and supporters each spending about half.

Whether Kentucky's campaign will cost that much remains to be seen.

The next campaign finance reports are due 15 days before the Nov. 8 election.

Contact reporter Deborah Yetter at dyetter@courier-journal.com. Find her on Twitter at @d_yetter. Reporter Joe Sonka contributed this story.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Group fighting Kentucky abortion amendment outraises supporters