KY legislator files bill to treat abortion like homicide. It faces long odds

Austin Horn and Hannah Pinski, Lexington Herald-Leader on Feb 20, 2026

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Abortion in Kentucky would be treated like a homicide under a bill proposed Friday by social conservative legislator Rep. Josh Calloway, R-Irvington. But if recent history and another legislator interested in the issue are any indication, don’t expect the bill to move.

House Bill 690 would supersede Kentucky’s current laws around fetal homicide and assault, and add provisions putting providers and potentially mothers at risk of legal liability for homicide or assault if an abortion is performed.

The bill redefines “person” and “human being” in Kentucky’s homicide and assault statutes to include an “unborn child” from fertilization until live birth, thereby subjecting conduct causing the death or injury of an unborn child to the same criminal laws that apply to born persons.

“In a prosecution under this chapter where the victim is an unborn child, enforcement shall be subject to the same legal principles as would apply to the homicide of a person who had been born alive,” the bill reads.

Previously filed abortion bills

Rep. Ken Fleming, R-Louisville, is no stranger to the abortion debate in Kentucky. He previously filed a bill to add rape, incest and some nonviable pregnancy exceptions to Kentucky’s near-total abortion

Fleming told the Herald-Leader Friday he hadn’t yet read Calloway’s bill, but it faces long odds.

“I think what’s been done in the past is probably a good reflection of what will be done in the future,” Fleming said.

Fleming added that legislature has not expressed much appetite to change Kentucky’s statutes on abortion at all. That comes in spite of Democrats, and more moderate Republicans like Fleming, pushing to add exceptions.

Rep. Emily Callaway, R-Louisville, filed a similar bill to Calloway’s in 2023, but that went nowhere.

“My sense in talking to the Republican caucus is there’s not really an appetite to address a lot of abortion issues,” Fleming said.

Calloway could not immediately be reached for comment.