Abortions remain outlawed in Kentucky as ACLU ends lawsuit challenging ban

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3 days ago

A courtroom challenge to two laws behind Kentucky's near-total abortion ban has been dropped, leaving the procedure outlawed under almost all circumstances.
The ACLU of Kentucky announced May 30 it has dropped a lawsuit it filed last in late 2024 challenging the "trigger law" banning abortions that went into effect immediately after the Roe v. Wade decision was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as a separate law outlawing abortions before determining whether a fetal heartbeat exists.
In a release, the nonprofit's Kentucky branch said it would continue to push for the overturning of bans on abortion, as people "have the right to control their own bodies without government interference."
"We are strategizing our next steps in this fight," Executive Director Amber Duke said. "In the meantime, our work to address the commonwealth's maternal mortality rates and lack of widespread paid leave coverage will continue as long as Kentucky remains a forced-birth state.'
Attorney General Russell Coleman, who'd been named as a defendant alongside Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander, Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure Executive Director Michael Rodman and Commonwealth's Attorney Gerina Whethers, said Kentuckians "can be proud that our pro-life values won the day today, and innocent lives will continue to be saved as a result."
The decision to drop the lawsuit was voluntary by the ACLU, according to a Friday filing in Jefferson Circuit Court.
The class action lawsuit was filed last November on behalf of Mary Poe, a pseudonym for a woman seven weeks pregnant who wanted to end her pregnancy. It argued laws banning abortions in Kentucky cause "irreparable harm" and are "an affront to the health and dignity of all Kentuckians."
"The inability to access abortion in the Commonwealth forcibly imposes the health risks and physical burdens of continued pregnancy on all Kentuckians who would otherwise choose to access safe and legal abortion," the lawsuit said.
The law requiring an ultrasound before ending a pregnancy was passed by the Kentucky legislature in 2017 and upheld by a federal appeals court two years later. After Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022, the state immediately banned all abortions unless the mother's life is at risk.
Several bills filed by Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature in the years since have sought to add exceptions, including pregnancies caused by rape or incest, but the proposals have not moved. House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, has cited the open lawsuit as a key reason why action hasn't been taken, though abortion exceptions remain "a very active topic of conversation among our caucus."
"I think it's going to continue to be very difficult until that lawsuit plays its way out to replace a law that is being litigated," he said in a January interview on KET.
The ACLU had argued the legislature could take action even with the lawsuit pending.
Lawmakers did approve a bill in March outlining medical conditions and complications that are not considered an abortion under state law. Sponsor Jason Nemes, R-Middletown, said the bill removes "legal ambiguity" from state statutes, though opponents argued it didn't go far enough and was approved without consensus from the medical community.
The GOP holds supermajorities in both chambers in Frankfort, even strengthening their hold this week when Eastern Kentucky Sen. Robin Webb changed her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. Webb was the lone Democrat in the state Senate outside Louisville and Lexington.
Floor Leader Steven Rudy, R-Paducah, said during the session that Republicans in the legislature "continue to have conversations over this issue."
"I think (Osborne) said it best — we don't really have a clear direction where our caucus wants to go on this," Rudy said in January.
Four states bordering Kentucky — Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee and West Virginia — have banned abortions. The procedure remains "mostly accessible" in Ohio and Virginia, according to Planned Parenthood, and fully accessible in Illinois.
Reach Lucas Aulbach at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky abortion ban still in place as ACLU drops lawsuit over ban