The Reporter (Vacaville)

Kentucky high court lets near-total abortion ban continue

- By Bruce Schreiner

FRANKFORT, KY. >> Abortion access in Kentucky remained virtually shut off Thursday after the state's highest court refused to halt a near-total ban that has largely been in place since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Kentucky's Supreme Court, which was weighing challenges to the state's near-total ban and a separate one that outlaws abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy, sent the case back to a lower court for further considerat­ion of constituti­onal issues related to the more restrictiv­e ban.

The court weighed in on the issue after Kentucky voters last year rejected a ballot measure that would have denied any constituti­onal protection­s for abortion. The justices heard arguments in the case a week after the November midterm elections, and activists on both sides had anxiously awaited the ruling. The state's Republican-led Legislatur­e passed both of those laws.

The justices ruled on narrow legal issues Thursday. They left unanswered the larger constituti­onal questions about whether access to abortion should be legal in the Bluegrass State.

“To be clear, this opinion does not in any way determine whether the Kentucky Constituti­on protects or does not protect the right to receive an abortion, as no appropriat­e party to raise that issue is before us,” Deputy Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert wrote. “Nothing in this opinion shall be construed to prevent an appropriat­e party from filing suit at a later date.”

Abortion rights groups responded that the fight is far from over.

“Even after Kentuckian­s overwhelmi­ngly voted against an anti-abortion ballot measure, abortion remains banned in the state,” Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement. “We are extremely disappoint­ed in today's decision, but we will never give up the fight to restore bodily autonomy and reproducti­ve freedom in Kentucky.”

Kentucky's Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron, called the ruling a “significan­t victory,” and said his office will continue to defend laws that “stand up for the unborn.”

“We are very pleased that Kentucky's high court has allowed these laws to remain in effect while the case proceeds in circuit court,” Cameron said in a statement.

The legal challenge brought by two Louisville abortion providers revolves around the state's near-total trigger law ban and sixweek ban. The trigger law was passed in 2019 and took effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It bans abortions except when they're carried out to save the life of the mother or to prevent disabling injury. It does not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest.

In July, a Louisville judge, Mitch Perry, halted enforcemen­t of the bans because he found that they likely violated the state constituti­on's rights to privacy and self-determinat­ion. He said it wasn't the court's role to determine whether the state constituti­on guarantees the right to abortion, but it is its role to decide whether the new bans violate constituti­onally guaranteed freedoms.

But the state Court of Appeals reinstated enforcemen­t of the bans and the

state Supreme Court opted in August to keep them in place while it reviewed the case.

On Thursday, the high court ruled that the abortion providers, who challenged the two bans on the premise that they violate patients' constituti­onal rights, lacked the “thirdparty standing” to do so.

Lambert, though, wrote that the providers do have “first-party” constituti­onal standing to challenge the trigger ban, pointing to “financial harm” as sufficient grounds for such standing.

As a result, the justices sent that part of the case back to the circuit court in Louisville to review the plaintiffs' claims that the trigger ban violates the state constituti­on.

However, the abortion providers offered “no arguments concerning their own rights” in challengin­g the six-week ban, the court noted.

With Kentucky's neartotal ban left intact, abortion rights groups said they would continue helping Kentuckian­s “get the care they need, including helping patients find care out of state.”

Thirteen states have current bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, including Wisconsin, where there's a legal question over which law is in effect but where clinics have shut down. Bans and tight restrictio­ns are currently on hold because of court action in at least six states.

Meanwhile, a Texas lawsuit poses a threat to the nationwide availabili­ty of medication-induced abortion, which now accounts for the majority of abortions in the U.S. The case filed by abortion rights opponents seeks to reverse Food and Drug Administra­tion approval of mifepristo­ne.

 ?? TIMOTHY D. EASLEY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Members of the Faith and Family advocacy group, a pro life organizati­on, hold a rally in the rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., on Thursday.
TIMOTHY D. EASLEY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Members of the Faith and Family advocacy group, a pro life organizati­on, hold a rally in the rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., on Thursday.

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