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Senate committee advances bill to protect health‑care workers' conscience objections; opponents warn of care gaps
Summary
The Kentucky Senate Health Services Committee voted to advance Senate Bill 132, a measure creating individual conscience protections for health‑care professionals. Supporters framed it as a recruitment tool; medical providers and advocacy groups warned it could allow denial of care and worsen access in rural areas.
Senate Bill 132, a proposal to create individual conscience protections for health‑care professionals, passed out of the Kentucky Senate Health Services Committee after testimony from supporters and opponents and a roll call vote by committee members.
Supporters said SB 132 would protect health‑care workers who decline to perform specific procedures that violate their deeply held religious or moral beliefs and would help recruit clinicians to the state. "This bill is not a challenge to the social structure. It is not a policy bill. ... What this bill is, it is a recruitment tool," State Senator Donald Douglas (District 22) told the committee as he introduced the measure.
Proponents included emergency medicine physicians and nurses who said workforce shortages and maldistribution of specialists are harming patient access. Bill Wurman, an emergency room physician who described staffing and…
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