Momnibus picks up controversial baggage on road through Kentucky Senate

FRANKFORT — The maternal health bill Momnibus took an unexpected turn in the final days of the 2024 legislative session that cost it some allies. 

Provisions of a bill that previously provoked a walkout by Democratic women were added with the sponsor’s consent but without debate in the Senate Health Services Committee. 

House Bill 10, dubbed Momnibus, now requires hospitals and midwives to refer patients who have nonviable pregnancies or whose fetuses have been diagnosed with fatal conditions to perinatal palliative care services. The previous bill, which is stuck in the House, described the palliative services “as alternatives to pregnancy termination.” 

The addition to the bill has led some supporters to bristle at it in its current form. 

The change flipped support from the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which still supports the bill in its original form, but not the palliative care addition. 

“A clean Momnibus, we’re 100% behind,” said Angela Cooper with the ACLU. “That was a bipartisan effort. It has been months and months and months — years, really — in the making. It’s a great piece of legislation.” 

“The problem is including any language from that bill … just opens the door for potential coercion,” Cooper with ACLU said. “It opens the door for people to be counseled in a way that is contrary to the standard of care.” 

Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky state director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, considers the additions to be “divisive language” that represent “politics at its worst.” 

The original Momnibus “was such a beautiful example of what we can do when we all work together and put politics aside and work for something that we all … agree on,” Wieder said. “We all agree on maternal health, we all agree on …. mortality reduction.” 

Rep. Kim Moser, R-Taylor Mill, the primary sponsor of Momnibus, said she was “surprised” that the Senate addition to her bill caused “angst” among allies. 

Momnibus now faces its penultimate hurdle before becoming law: the Senate floor. Should it pass there, Gov. Andy Beshear can sign or veto it. In order to retain its right to override a Beshear veto, the General Assembly has to approve the bill by the end of Thursday, which is the 58th day of the 60-day session. 

What got added to Momnibus? 

Three Democrats walked out of a committee that passed HB 467, in fact, saying it “masquerades as help” but really “shames mothers who are losing children.” That bill would require health insurers to cover perinatal palliative care for people with nonviable pregnancies or whose babies are expected to die near birth and pitched “supports as alternatives to pregnancy termination.” 

HB 467 passed the House Health Services Committee in early March but did not advance further, making it unlikely to become law as the 2024 session is almost over. 

But part of the bill has now been folded into Momnibus, a maternal health bill that would incentivize Kentuckians to get that prenatal care by adding pregnancy to the list of qualifying life events for health insurance coverage, among other things.

HB 467, sponsored by Rep. Nancy Tate, included language to “consider the psychological and faith challenges associated with post-termination” of a pregnancy and said perinatal palliative care serves as “alternatives to pregnancy termination.” 

Moser cosponsored Tate’s bill. 

Opponents of that bill said that since hospitals already offer perinatal palliative care, the bill would only serve to incentivize against abortion, which is illegal in Kentucky in most cases. 

The Senate addition to Momnibus — in the form of a committee substitute — does not include that “alternatives” statement. It directs medical providers to refer patients for perinatal palliative care in cases when “prenatal diagnosis indicating that a baby may die before or after birth; diagnosis of fetal anomalies where the likelihood of long-term survival is uncertain or minimal; or newborn diagnosed with a potentially life-limiting illness.” 

Momnibus ‘ready to go’ in Senate  

Moser said Wednesday that the bill is “teed up” and “ready to go” in the Senate, which has one day — Thursday — left on its meeting schedule before breaking for the veto period. 

She doesn’t know “what form it’s going to be in,” though. 

But she “liked” Tate’s bill, she said. “I’m a little surprised at all the angst” about that language joining Momnibus. 

“I’m fine either way,” she said. “I think it’s a good addition. We’ll see.”