AN ACT relating to the recruitment and retention of health care professionals and declaring an emergency.
Summary
Create new sections of KRS Chapter 344 to ensure federal law relating to emergency medical treatment and the collection of evidence is not overridden; define terms; prohibit discrimination against health care professionals who decline to perform procedures that violate their conscience; grant health care professionals the right not to participate in services that violate their conscience; exempt health care professionals from liability for exercising these rights; prohibit hiring or licensing authorities from reprimanding health care professionals; require hiring or licensing authorities to provide complaints it has received to health care professionals; establish a civil cause of action for persons injured by violations; provide that the Act may be cited as the Health Care Heroes Recruitment and Retention Act; EMERGENCY.
Bill status
passed
3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Feb 2026
Senate Passage
Feb 2026
House Passage
Governor
Introduced Jan 12, 2026
Last action Feb 17, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison
What changed between versions
Introduced
→
Current/Final
·
1 edit
MINOR
The document underwent a technical update from an internal working draft to the official final version of Senate Bill 72. The changes involve replacing internal tracking codes and page headers with the bill's official number (SB 72) and finalizing the document title, indicating the bill has moved from introduction to its final form.
TECHNICAL
Replaced internal bill tracking numbers (BR 1588) with the official Senate Bill number (SB 72) and updated the document header to reflect the final version.
Floor votes · Senate Feb 13, 2026
How they voted
33–6
Passed · 5 other
Total votes 44
Feb 13, 2026
D
Democratic6
83% Nay
R
Republican38
86% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea
All Nay
Mixed
No data
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
9
Key actions
2
Committee
4
Feb 17, 2026
Committee
to Committee on Committees (H)
lower
Feb 13, 2026
Upper · Passed
3rd reading, passed 28-5
upper
Feb 11, 2026
Upper · Passed
reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar
upper
Feb 6, 2026
Committee
to Health Services (S)
upper
Jan 12, 2026
Committee
to Committee on Committees (S)
upper
Jan 12, 2026
Introduced
introduced in Senate
upper
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors
Sponsors
No sponsor information available.
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