Chattanooga Times Free Press

Federal appeals court upholds abortion law

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A federal appeals court has upheld a decades-old Kentucky law requiring abortion clinics to have written agreements with a hospital and an ambulance service in case of medical emergencie­s.

The 2-1 decision by the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals reverses a federal judge’s ruling, who had said the 1998 Kentucky law violated constituti­onally protected due process rights.

However, in Friday’s ruling, the appeals court rejected that argument and countered the “district court erred in concluding that Kentucky would be left without an abortion facility.”

In 2017, EMW Women’s Surgical Center — the state’s only clinic that provided abortions at the time — decided to challenge the state law after becoming embroiled in a licensing fight with then Gov. Matt Bevin. The Republican’s administra­tion had claimed the clinic lacked proper transfer agreements and took steps to shut it down.

Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky later joined the suit, claiming Bevin’s administra­tion had used the transfer agreements to block its request for a license to provide abortions in Louisville.

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