A Kentucky politician has apologized for making bizarre remarks about the sex life of Jewish women during a floor debate Wednesday, promising that he ‘absolutely meant no harm’ after multiple Jewish groups condemned his speech.
State Rep. Danny Bentley stood on the floor debating House Bill 3, an omnibus anti-abortion bill that passed 77-20 later that day.
The Republican lawmaker wrongly claimed that RU-486, or Mifepristone – one of two pills taken to end an early pregnancy – was created during World War II and was originally called Zyklon B, a cyanide-based gas that was used to kill Jews during the Holocaust.
Earlier in the day, a Democratic representative had filed an amendment that would exempt Jewish women from the rules, since the faith does not believe that life begins at conception, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
‘In fact the person who developed it was a Jew, since we brought up the Hebrew family today,’ Bentley later said, going on to theorize about the sex lives of Jewish women.
‘Did you know that a Jewish woman has less cancer of the cervix than any other race in this country or this world? And why is that? Because the Jewish women only have one sex partner… They don’t have multiple sex partners. To say that the Jewish people approve of this drug now is wrong.’
Kentucky Rep. Danny Bentley has apologized for commenting on the sex lives of Jewish women during a debate on an anti-abortion bill on Wednesday
Other lawmakers laughed as Bentley falsely claimed that an abortion pill is derived from a cyanide-based gas used to kill Jewish people in the Holocaust
The Republican’s remarks were quickly condemned by Jewish groups and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear
Beshear wrote that there is ‘no place for antisemitism in Kentucky’ in a tweet Thursday
Bentley’s comments were condemned by multiple Jewish organizations and by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who said Thursday that ‘there is no place for antisemitism in Kentucky. Not in our communities and not in our government.’
Bentley has represented Kentucky’s 98th district in the state House of Representatives since 2017, according to the state website.
He is a pharmacist from Russel, a river town near the borders of West Virginia and Ohio, having earned his doctorate in pharmacy from the University of Kentucky.
Lawmakers sitting behind Bentley laughed as he delivered his speech, but his remarks went uninterrupted.
The Republican apologized for his comments on Wednesday night.
‘I meant absolutely no harm in my comments today and sincerely apologize for any they caused. Last week we received a heartbreakingly sad reminder that anti-Semitism still exists in our society and I apologize if my comments today caused similar pain or any doubt that I stand with the Jewish Community against hatred,’ he said.
Bentley was likely referring to an antisemitic email that was sent to various lawmakers in the Kentucky House last week, the Courier-Journal reports.
The Jewish Federation of Louisville and the American Jewish Committee offered to provide training to legislators about understanding and combating antisemitism, and a spokeswoman for Kentucky Senate Republicans said Senate leadership would add sensitivity training on antisemitism to the current annual slate of trainings.
‘My intention was to speak as a pharmacist to the history of RU-486 and respond to a proposed amendment. I clearly should have been more sensitive with my comments.’
But state Sen. Karen Berg, a Democrat from Louisville and the only Jewish member of the Kentucky legislature, says the information was wrong anyway.
She says that the drug was indeed developed by a Jewish person, but that it was in the 1980s.
The lawmaker falsely claimed Mifepristone – one of two pills taken to induce abortion – was created during World War II and was originally called Zyklon B, a gas used to kill Jewish people
The medicine was invented by a Jewish person, but in the 1980s, far after World War II
Rep. Bentley is a pharmacist from Russel, a river town near the borders of West Virginia and Ohio. He earned his doctorate in pharmacy from the University of Kentucky
‘The first clinical trials on this drug has nothing to do with World War II (and) has nothing to do with the Holocaust,’ she told the Courier-Journal. ‘That the developer was indeed of Jewish descent… what difference does that make? And why is that being brought up on the floor?’
The American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Louisville and the National Council of Jewish Women’s Louisville Section released a joint statement condemning Bentley’s comments Wednesday night.
‘On Wednesday, during a hearing on women;s reproductive choice, Rep. Danny Bentley went on a bizarre, anti-Semitic rant that included outlandish claims about the sex lives of Jewish women and the outrageous assertion that Jews created the ‘abortion pill’ during the Holocaust to profit financially,’ they said.
‘We call on all elected officials and community partners to forcefully denounce anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, especially when they emanate from officials elected to serve the people of the Commonwealth.’
The bill that was being debated, House Bill 3, would ban the shipment of medication used to induce abortions by mail, which is now allowed in many states after a federal rule change that did away with a requirement for an in-person visit.
It would require fetal remains to be buried or cremated.
The legislation would further restricts abortions for underage girls by making it harder for them to get one without parent approval. It also puts the Kentucky Board of Pharmacy in charge of enforcing the rules about the medications, which account for about half of the abortions performed in Kentucky.
It will now move on to the Senate.
