FRANKFORT – Should pregnant women be monitored by the state?

That's what a Louisville lawmaker is proposing out of frustration with a flurry of bills in the current legislative session meant to restrict or eliminate abortion in Kentucky.

"It's so arrogant of a bunch of legislators," said Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, a Louisville Democrat and supporter of abortion rights. "It's none of our business, to interfere in personal and private decisions of women."

Marzian's proposed amendment calls for all Kentucky women of childbearing age to provide a notarized doctor's statement to the state each month indicating whether they are pregnant, so the status of anyone who is pregnant can be monitored.

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Her amendment is reminiscent of her effort in 2016 to require Kentucky men to visit a doctor twice and have signed permission from their wives before obtaining a prescription for Viagra or other such drugs for erectile dysfunction. The man also would have to swear he was having sex with only his spouse.

That bill died in the House, but not before it drew widespread national attention. It also was meant as a protest against abortion bills backed by the male-dominated legislature.

"I want to protect these men from themselves," Marzian, a nurse, said at the time.

Her current proposal includes that any woman who failed to provide the statement "shall be subject to arrest and fines."

Any woman who is pregnant and fails to provide the notarized statement "will be fitted with an ankle monitor for the duration of the pregnancy," Marzian's proposal said.

Marzian filed her measure as a proposed amendment to House Bill 148, a so-called "trigger bill" to ban abortion in Kentucky should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision to legalize abortion nationwide.

It passed a House committee Thursday and is among a handful of anti-abortion measures advancing through Kentucky's Republican-controlled General Assembly.

Joe Fischer, sponsor of HB 148, said he is hopeful Roe v. Wade will be overturned by a more conservative Supreme Court and he wants Kentucky to have a law in place in that case.

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Marzian said she knows her amendment won't be accepted in the House and isn't likely to slow any abortion bills. But she said she hopes it will draw attention to bills she said are unnecessary and intrusive.

"We have so many other needs in the commonwealth than to interfere with reproductive rights," she said,.

Deborah Yetter: 502-582-4228; dyetter@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @d_yetter.