<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1656599189635,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017d-fe9d-da96-ad7d-ffbf8a5c0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1656599189635,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017d-fe9d-da96-ad7d-ffbf8a5c0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_56525200", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1043265"} }); ","_id":"00000181-b501-df08-a3b3-ff0d907f0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedAbortions in Kentucky can resume after a state judge blocked enforcement of two restrictive abortion laws in Kentucky.
Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Mitch Perry granted a request by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood for a restraining order, temporarily blocking enforcement of the state’s trigger law and another 2019 law banning abortion after six weeks that was previously stopped in federal court.
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“We’re glad the court recognized the devastation happening in Kentucky and decided to block the commonwealth’s cruel abortion bans,” Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, ACLU, and the ACLU of Kentucky said in a statement. “We won’t stop fighting for people’s ability to access the essential abortion care they need in Kentucky. The government should never have the authority to force a person to remain pregnant against their will.”
The two groups had filed a lawsuit on Monday to block the two abortion laws, arguing that “forcing Kentuckians to remain pregnant, and eventually give birth, against their will” was in violation of the state’s constitution.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron argued Wednesday that “there is no textual, precedential, or historical support for the argument that there is a right to abortion embedded within the Kentucky Constitution,” according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
The state’s only two abortion providers, EMW Women’s Surgical Center and Planned Parenthood, both located in Louisville, had suspended abortion services after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday.
Kentucky’s trigger measure was signed into law in 2019, and it bans abortions unless the mother’s life is in immediate danger. The law does not provide exceptions for rape or incest and stipulates that any provider who administers an abortion is guilty of a felony. The state’s six-week ban was stopped in federal court, though Cameron has petitioned to appeal the decision.
The restraining order will remain in place until at least next Wednesday when the state’s two abortion providers are expected to present cases for why there should be a more permanent suspension of the law.
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Judges in Texas, Utah, and Louisiana have also blocked similar abortion “trigger laws” that went into effect following Friday’s decision. In total, 13 states had trigger laws to ban abortions on the books ahead of the ruling.
