CORRECTION, September 16, 2019 (10:41AM): This report has been updated to more accurately reflect Attorney General Beshear's handling of past abortion lawsuits.
September 13, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has no intention of softening his rhetoric about Democrat opponent and current state Attorney General Andy Beshear’s pro-abortion stance and financial backing from the abortion lobby.
The Republican incumbent made that clear this week in comments he made to WYMT during a stop in the eastern part of the state. “I’m running against a guy in Attorney General Beshear who’s strongly pro-abortion,” Bevin said. “Not only strongly pro-abortion, some of his strongest financial supporters are the providers of abortions that remain here in Kentucky.”
“NARAL, which is the most proactive pro-abortion organization in America, Planned Parenthood, all these people have maxed out to him, they contribute to him, they do fundraisers and they knock on doors,” he continued. “I'm a pro-life individual, I have been my entire life. I'm blessed to be the father of nine children. Four of our children are adopted.”
Bevin also released an ad this week referencing the ongoing trial against the pro-life investigators who exposed Planned Parenthood’s fetal organ harvesting business, specifically the testimony of abortionists who acknowledged some of the practice’s grisly details under oath.
“This is who Planned Parenthood is. They are a barbaric organization,” Bevin says in the ad. “They hand-picked Attorney General Beshear. He was the one in the Democrat primary they endorsed. They sent people to rally votes on his behalf. They continue to support him financially and with feet on the ground.”
Bevin’s running mate, Republican state Sen. Ralph Alvarado, dubbed Beshear “Abortion Andy” last month, as well.
Beshear’s campaign responded to Bevin’s latest comments with a statement to WYMT claiming he merely “supports Roe v. Wade, which includes reasonable restrictions, especially on late-term procedures,” whereas Bevin is an “extremist” who “supports a total ban that would eliminate all options for victims of rape and incest.”
Kentucky has enacted numerous protections for preborn babies under Bevin, including a ban on abortions sought specifically due to a child’s race, sex, or disability; a ban on dismemberment abortion procedures; a ban on abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected; and a requirement that women be offered ultrasound images of their children before aborting them.
All of these laws have been tied up in court by legal challenges from pro-abortion groups. Beshear claimed he would defend the ultrasound law (though he ultimately asked to be removed as a defendant in that lawsuit) but not stronger laws like the 20-week and dismemberment bans, for which Bevin has previously condemned him. Bevin has also noted that Beshear has accepted donations from Ernest Marshall, owner of the Louisville abortion facility EMW Women’s Surgical Center, and his wife.
On Friday, the Courier-Journal published an op-ed by Right to Life of Louisville board member Schu Montgomery supporting Bevin’s stance, noting that recent polling shows that 55 percent of Kentuckians would make abortion either totally illegal or limited to cases of rape, incest, or medical emergencies (which is consistent with national polling data).
“But even if the numbers recorded otherwise, which they don’t, morality, objective truth and irrefutable scientific evidence all point to the urgency to restore the right to life to unborn children,” Montgomery added. “In Kentucky, there is only one abortion clinic left. If abortions were so popular, why then are we … witnessing the last gasp of a diabolical abortion industry and the continuing renaissance of crisis pregnancy centers that offer real and effective prenatal and postpartum care to women facing unplanned pregnancies?”
Cook Political Report and Inside Elections rate Kentucky’s November 2019 gubernatorial election a toss-up, and political analyst Larry Sabato maintains that the race still leans Republican. In June, a Gravis poll found Bevin leading Beshear by six points.