GOP candidate for KY governor backs 'effective ban' on abortion because women 'need to be more responsible'

A Kentucky Republican candidate for governor said this week that he is sponsoring a bill to effectively ban abortion because women "need to be more responsible with their actions."

Republican state Rep. Robert Goforth, who announced Tuesday that he is running for governor, filed House Bill 100, which is similar to a Senate bill that attempts to outlaw abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

"It's essentially a ban," Brigitte Amiri of the American Civil Liberties Union told the Courier-Journal. "Without a lawsuit to block it, abortion would be effectively banned in the state."

Goforth disagreed with those characterizing his bill as a "ban."

"I think it's making people be more responsible," he said. "If they're going to engage in activity that’s going to end up in conception, they just need to be more responsible with their actions."

Goforth speculated that a legal challenge to his legislation could eventually overturn Roe v. Wade.

"I think may be this is something that the Supreme Court would look back on once they see there's so many of us raising this concern across the nation," Goforth said. "They could look back and say maybe we got [Roe v. Wade] wrong."

Read the entire report from the Courier-Journal.