Kentucky lieutenant governor nominee spoke at fundraiser for hardline anti-abortion group

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the Republican nominee in this November’s gubernatorial election, has repeatedly contradicted himself about whether he backs a total abortion ban without exceptions. Meanwhile, his running mate, state Sen. Robby Mills, spoke on Oct. 7 at a fundraising event for a conservative group that opposes abortion, even in cases of rape.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman are running for reelection, touting their support for reproductive rights. In September, they released an ad featuring a survivor of childhood rape and incest criticizing Cameron’s support for an abortion ban without rape or incest exceptions.

Cameron initially attacked the ads and said that he would sign a law establishing exceptions for incest and rape, but later flip-flopped, explaining that he would sign a law with such exceptions only if forced to by the courts. 

Mills, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, appeared at the first Kentucky Family Forum, an event hosted by the right-wing group the Family Foundation and designed to “encourage the Body of Christ, promote a biblical worldview, and help build and unify the pro-family policy movement across Kentucky.” 

“The breakdown of the family is just traumatic in our society right now, and we’ve got to focus on things that help build the family back up,” Mills told the group, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

On Sept. 21, the Family Foundation tweeted a video of its executive director, David Walls, telling Lexington NBC affiliate LEX 18 that Beshear’s ads were preying on tragedy: “Preborn children should not be made into second victims in these tragic situations. The preborn child should not have his or her dignity attacked because of an evil act that they were not a part of.”

According to the Herald-Leader, another panelist at the event, Republican Kentucky state Rep. Nancy Tate, used her appearance on a panel on additional abortion restrictions to propose new laws to punish those who “aid and abet” Kentucky citizens who leave the state to obtain abortion care.

A spokesperson for Cameron did not immediately respond to questions from the American Independent Foundation about Tate’s proposal and whether he would support laws that criminalize those who seek out-of-state care.

But in June, Cameron and other Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra opposing a proposed rule to protect the privacy of patients by preventing state governments from obtaining medical records “about reproductive health care that is lawful under the circumstances in which such health care is provided.”

The attorneys general claimed such protection “would unlawfully interfere with States’ authority to enforce their laws.”

“Daniel Cameron not only believes survivors of rape and incest should be forced to give birth — including children as young as 9-years-old — but he wants access to Kentuckians’ private medical records for women who travel out of state to receive reproductive heath care,” Emma O’Brien, states press secretary for the Democratic Governors Association, told the American Independent Foundation in an email. “At the same time, Cameron’s running mate just attended an event where their allies outlined support for enforcing the extreme ban with prosecutions. That’s wrong, dangerous, and far too extreme for Kentucky.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.