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FRANKFORT (AP) - A Louisville lawmaker is pressing for changes to Kentucky's domestic violence laws to allow them to apply to dating couples.

Democratic Sen. Denise Harper Angel said 48 other states already have amended their domestic violence laws to protect victims of dating violence and that Kentucky should follow suit.

She has pushed similar legislation unsuccessfully over the past three years.

Current Kentucky domestic violence laws apply only when victims have either lived with or had a child with their abusers. Harper Angel said victims of dating violence can't get an emergency protective order, regardless of the degree of intimacy involved.

She said she's hopeful the measure will pass the Senate this year.

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The legislation is Senate Bill 16.

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