With less than two weeks remaining in the 2007 Kentucky legislative session, several bills addressing issues of human life, justice and health have been approved by either the Senate or House and are awaiting action in the other chambers. These bills should be considered and passed.

The various pieces of legislation deal with strengthening the state’s informed consent law on abortion, raising the minimum wage and providing for smoking cessation treatment in the Medicaid health program for the poor.

The Senate, in a 34-3 vote last week, passed Senate Bill 179 that would require “in-person” consultation between a woman seeking an abortion and the abortion provider 24 hours before an abortion is performed. This bill says the consultation must be done by a doctor or a doctor’s representative in “an individual, private session” and “not by way of a recorded message.”

Why is this legislation needed? The Catholic Conference of Kentucky (CCK), which supports SB 179, said a woman’s “access to detailed, health-related information and life-affirming options to abortion is best provided in person where questions can be asked and the specific situation of the woman can be considered by a medical professional.”

The CCK, public policy arm of the state’s bishops, added that in-person consultation “establishes a process that better protects human life” and “better protects the rights of the woman” in making a decision “that is not reversible.”

Kentucky’s informed consent law now requires that a woman be informed 24 hours before an abortion about the nature of the abortion procedure, risks, alternatives to the abortion and the probable gestational age of the embryo or fetus. This can be done more effectively, with opportunities for questions to be asked, in person rather than over the telephone.

Last year the House passed a similar measure calling for “in-person” consultation, but both chambers could not agree on a bill, and the issue died. The House should pass SB 179, which Gov. Ernie Fletcher has said he will sign into law.

On another issue, the House last week passed by an 89-10 vote House Bill 305, which increases the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour now to $5.85 when the new law becomes effective, to $6.55 in 2008 and to $7.25 in 2009. The Senate also should enact this legislation.

Raising the minimum wage is “the right thing to do,” said Rep. J.R. Gray of Benton, the chief sponsor of HB 305. “It’s the moral thing to do.”

Kentucky’s minimum wage has been the same as the federal rate of $5.15 an hour for 10 years. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have recognized the injustice of keeping the rate at $5.15 and have raised their minimum-wage rates above the federal level. Kentucky should do the same.

Legislation to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour by 2009 is pending in Congress. But the bill has run into a snag with differences between the House and Senate over the amount of a tax credit for small businesses.

The CCK is part of a coalition, called Raise the Wage, supporting an increase in the minimum wage in Kentucky. Speaking on behalf of the coalition to the state House Labor and Industry Committee Feb. 15, the Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper, executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, said:

“That the (minimum) wage hasn’t been increased in over a decade is unconscionable. We can no longer wait for Washington to act. ... It is incumbent upon us here in Kentucky to join the other 29 states and the District of Columbia and set our own moral floor beneath which no worker should be paid.”

Another proposal the General Assembly should approve is House Bill 337, which would provide Medicaid reimbursement for smoking cessation treatment intervention, including counseling, medications and other therapy. The bill sailed through the House in a 94-0 vote on Feb. 23, and it should be given the same endorsement by the Senate.

Ed Monahan, CCK executive director, described HB 337 as a “common-sense step” and “an investment opportunity to reduce smoking and other tobacco use” in Kentucky.

He noted that one in four women in Kentucky smoke during pregnancy. “Smoking among pregnant women in Kentucky is the highest in the nation, affecting not only the health of the woman but the baby she is carrying,” he said.

HB 337 makes good sense in terms of promoting health as well as reducing Medicaid costs resulting from health problems caused by tobacco use.