Namesake for failed 'Hadley's Law' in Kentucky vows to keep fighting for abortion exceptions

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A law that would've added exceptions to Kentucky's abortion ban failed to pass this legislative session.

That failure brings back painful memories for 22-year-old Hadley Duvall. She is a survivor. Her stepfather sexually abused her as a young child.

Senate Bill 99, also known as "Hadley's Law," would have made exceptions to Kentucky's abortion ban. It would allow abortions for survivors of rape or incest and when a pregnancy threatens a mother's life.

"When you're five years old, and you have your father figure telling you 'this is normal.' Then you think it's normal," Duvall explained.

Albums full of childhood photos, show the wounds of her abuse. Duvall told her mom the carpet burn on her knee was from slipping on ice.

"I started to get older and fight back. That was the first physical altercation. I had tried to fight back," she said.

At 12 years old, Duvall said her stepfather took her out of language arts class to take a pregnancy test. It was positive.

"I took it in my bathroom, so many thoughts were going through my head," she remembered. "This was right after a miscarriage."

When the pregnancy happened ten years ago, Duvall would have been able to legally get an abortion in Kentucky.

The overturning of Roe vs. Wade prompted Duvall to share her story.

Alongside State Sen. David Yates (D-Louisville), she championed the bill that would have added exceptions for rape and incest to Kentucky's abortion ban.

"Nobody fought for me, so I will fight for me again, and all the little girls wondering who is fighting for them," Duvall said.

Even some Republicans including Rep. Jason Nemes (R-Louisville) have supported the call to add narrow exceptions to Kentucky's abortion ban.

"It was interpreted correctly, unfortunately, and that's why the legislature needs to come back to the table and change the law," Nemes told WDRB in June 2023.

But Hadley's law stalled this year and didn't even get a committee hearing.

"To know there are kids that could be carrying a pregnancy right now -- really breaks my heart," Duvall said.

A spokesperson for Kentucky's Senate Republican leadership said, "As a member of Senate Minority Leadership, the bill sponsor serves on the Committee on Committees, which meets during each legislative day. The sponsor did not make a committee assignment request nor raise the issue with fellow leadership members. Only in the closing days of the legislative session did the sponsor introduce a discharge petition, prefaced not by a meeting with fellow Senate leaders but by a press conference. The sponsor attempted to call the petition for consideration on the same day it was read into the record, which was not in order with procedural rules. The bill and similar legislation and provisions of other bills ultimately did not carry enough support to move through the legislative process."

Hadley, who now wants to be a therapist, said she will not give up the fight. "Just because we weren't heard out this time, we're not done"

Duvall told her mom about the abuse when she was 15. "I just blurted it out and said I've been getting raped my entire life."

Her stepfather plead guilty and is in prison.

Duvall is now the first college graduate in her family with a degree in psychology from Midway University. She was also a college athlete.

Related stories: