Kentucky governor to speak out against strict abortion ban in neighboring Tennessee

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s upcoming trip to neighboring Tennessee to speak out against that state’s sweeping abortion ban is the latest sign that the Democrat known for defeating Donald Trump-backed rivals is looking to improve his party’s prospects in GOP territory and build up his own name recognition.

Beshear — who campaigned against his state’s near-total abortion ban in winning reelection last year — will speak next month at an event called “Championing Reproductive Freedom.” He will be joined by Hadley Duvall, a college student featured in a TV ad that linked Beshear’s GOP challenger last year to Kentucky’s strict abortion law, which bans abortions except when carried out to save the mother’s life.

Beshear’s reelection — in a state that otherwise has trended toward the GOP — burnished his image as a rising national Democratic star. The governor said Monday that abortion looms as a powerful issue for his party, provided “it is grounded in a rejection of extremism.”

“Like Kentucky, Tennessee has some of the most extreme laws in the country, where victims of rape and incest don’t have the necessary options,” Beshear said in a phone interview. “I think that the voters in Tennessee, just like in Kentucky, have enough basic empathy to believe that goes way too far.”

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