With no exceptions for rape or incest, Kentucky's near-total abortion ban can force children as young as 9 to deliver a baby

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While pregnancy in very young girls is rare, it does happen. 

"In Kentucky, the two youngest patients to receive an abortion over the past two years were age 9. Under Kentucky law, sexual intercourse with a 9-year-old is considered first-degree rape," Deborah Yetter reports for the Louisville Courier Journal.

"In 2021, and again this year, one 9-year-old each year had a pregnancy terminated, according to data from the Kentucky Office of Vital Statistics obtained by The Courier Journal through an open records request. The records provide no other details about the individuals. In all, 34 girls ages 15 or younger received abortions in 2021, according to state statistics, with 16 generally regarded as the age where minors are able to consent to sexual intercourse."

As the laws stand today in Kentucky, those abortions would be illegal, even if a pregnancy resulted from rape and despite the age of a parson, Yetter notes. 

That's because a ban on almost all abortions in the state was triggered when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision that created a constitutional right to abortion. The law has exceptions to prevent the woman's death or serious impairment of a life-sustaining organ; a law revived by the court decision bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

A Louisville judge blocked the law pending resolution of a lawsuit against it, but a Pikeville judge on the Court of Appeals vacated that ruling, and the Supreme Court left it in place until it hears arguments in the case Nov. 15. The Nov. 8 ballot has a referendum that would make the case moot by making the state constitution say it guarantees no right to abortion or funding of it.

Yetter reports that such stringent abortion bans outrage abortion-rights advocates, including medical professionals who care for young girls.

"Do we expect a fourth-grader to carry a pregnancy to term, deliver and expect that child to carry on after this horror without permanent psychological trauma," asked Dr. Anne-Marie Amies Oelschlager, a University of Washington professor of pediatric and adolescent gynecology. "Are we really expecting this of our pregnant youth, even if the pregnancy may not result in death?"

Furthermore, Oelschlager said, young girls and teens aren't physically mature enough to carry a pregnancy to term, which increases risks to the patient as well as the fetus. Her comments were provided by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which considers abortion to be essential health care.

Abortion opponents in Kentucky appear unwilling to allow exceptions beyond those in the trigger law. 

Rep. Joe Fischer, R-Fort Thomas, told a legislative committee in 2019 that the trigger law, which he was sponsoring, "will reflect what I think are Kentucky values and will protect all human life from the moment of conception." Fischer is running to unseat state Supreme Court Justice Michelle Keller in a nonpartisan election.

Addia Wuchner, executive director of the Kentucky Right to Life Association, declined to say whether an exception should be made for girls as young as 9 who become pregnant. Instead, she asked who was there to protect that child and whether the rape had been reported to the authorities. "It is still a life that has been formed," she told Yetter. "All life is sacred and we're in an area where this child, this unborn child, is being punished because of the father."

Planned Parenthood disagrees. 

“Every person, in every circumstance, deserves access to health care when and where they need it," Katie Rodihan, a spokeswoman for the six-state Planned Parenthood group that includes Kentucky, told Yetter. "Shame on lawmakers in Kentucky for abandoning victims of rape and incest ― including children ― and subjecting them to the immense trauma of forced pregnancy by their predator. This law is cruel and inhumane."

Yetter reports that Kentucky's abortion numbers for 2021 are not available, but in 2020, 4,104 abortions were performed, with 36 of the patients 15 or younger; 368 were 19 or younger, according to a state report.