The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed for a Republican attorney general in Kentucky to defend a law banning abortion after 15 weeks of gestation after the state’s Democratic governor dropped the matter.
Justices voted 8-1 to reject a federal appeals court’s decision that Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron waited too long to get involved after other state officials said they would not pursue an appeal, according to court records.
The court’s decision does not take a stance on the abortion law, which restricts a second-trimester abortion practice called “dilation and evacuation” used after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
SUPREME COURT CONSIDERS WHETHER KENTUCKY ATTORNEY GENERAL CAN DEFEND STATE ABORTION LAW
The law, passed in 2018, has been blocked by lower courts.
The high court’s decision effectively revives the case and makes it easier for states that elect their attorneys general to defend laws when other state officials from the opposite party express a different viewpoint.
Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican, signed H.B. 454 in 2018. Following the move, EMW Women’s Surgical Center, a Louisville abortion provider, promptly challenged that law in court and argued it affected abortions that take place before fetal viability.
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A federal judge blocked the law as unconstitutional in 2019, a decision upheld by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Kentucky, which had since elected Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, stopped defending the law.
Cameron, a Republican elected alongside Beshear, later asked the full 6th Circuit to revisit the case. They declined the request, saying Cameron’s attempted intervention came too late in the process. Cameron then appealed to the Supreme Court.
