A Kentucky lawmaker is drafting a bill that could change the state’s protective order law.
Republican Representative Stephanie Dietz of Kenton County plans to bring the bill that would expand protections for survivors of domestic violence to the 2025 legislative session.
The legislation would modify the state’s current protective order law to allow those who have endured coercive control to qualify for a protective order.
The legislation defines coercive control as, “a pattern of behavior that you see over a period of time that unreasonably interferes with a person’s free will, their personal liberty, and trying to control them with that pattern of behavior.”
Dietz said some examples of coercive control are an abuser taking control of finances, depriving someone of basic needs or necessities, threatening to hurt the victim’s children, controlling who a victim sees or talks to, or damaging property.
Dietz explained her measure would make clear that behavior that has not yet reached physical violence will also be defined as coercive control.