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| Abortion-rights supporters chanted April 13 on the second floor of the state Capitol, where the state Supreme Court meets, one floor below the legislature. (Associated Press Photo by Bruce Schreiner) |
A pregnant woman in Kentucky filed a lawsuit Friday demanding the right to an abortion, the second legal challenge in days to sweeping abortion bans that have taken hold in more than a dozen U.S. states since Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer.
The suit, in state court in Louisville, says Kentucky's near-total ban of abortion violates the plaintiff's rights to privacy and self-determination under the state constitution.The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, is about eight weeks pregnant and wants to have an abortion in Kentucky but cannot legally do so because of the state's ban, the suit said. She is seeking class-action status to include other Kentuckians who are or will become pregnant and want to have an abortion.
“I am a proud Kentuckian and I love the life my family and I have here, but I’m angry that now that I’m pregnant and do not want to be,” the plaintiff said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups backing her challenge. “The government is interfering in my private matters and blocking me from having an abortion. This is my decision, not the government or any other person’s."
State Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office said it is reviewing the suit but offered no other comments. Cameron, a Republican who lost last month's race for governor to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, has defended the state's anti-abortion laws in other court proceedings.
The lawsuit came a day after a judge in Texas gave a pregnant woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis permission to get an abortion. The temporary restraining order issued Thursday stops Texas from enforcing the state’s ban on the woman, who is 20 weeks pregnant, and lasts for 14 days. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton insisted that the order would not insulate any medical practitioners from any civil or criminal liability, and said he would ask the state Supreme Court to overturn the ruling.
Unlike the Texas case, little is known about the Kentucky plaintiff or her pregnancy. Legal challenges across the nation have largely highlighted stories from women who were denied abortions while facing harrowing pregnancy complications. But in Kentucky, the plaintiff's attorneys insisted they would fiercely protect their client's privacy, stressing that Jane Doe believes “everyone should have the right to make decisions privately and make decisions for their own families,” said Amber Duke, the ACLU of Kentucky's executive director.
Earlier this year, the Kentucky Supreme Court refused to halt the state's near-total abortion ban and another outlawing abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy. The justices focused on a narrow legal issue, saying an abortion clinic didn't have the right to sue on behalf of women, but didn’t resolve larger constitutional questions about whether access to abortion should be legal in the Bluegrass State.
The ACLU, Planned Parenthood and other activists say they've been searching for a plaintiff ever since that February ruling. The suit filed Friday marks the launch of their new assault against the state's abortion bans.
“These bans have harmed countless Kentuckians since going into effect last year, and we are relieved to be back in court to try to restore abortion access in Kentucky,” Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said in the news release.
The lawsuit says Kentucky women are suffering “medical, constitutional and irreparable harm” by being denied the right to obtain abortions.
“Abortion is a critical component of reproductive healthcare and crucial to the ability of Kentuckians to control their lives,” the suit says. “Whether to take on the health risks and responsibilities of pregnancy and parenting is a personal and consequential decision that must be left to the individual to determine for herself without governmental interference.”
Kentucky voters last year rejected a ballot measure that would have denied any constitutional protections for abortion, but abortion-rights supporters have made no inroads in the Republican-controlled legislature in chipping away at the state's anti-abortion laws.
The legal challenge revolves around Kentucky’s near-total trigger law ban and a separate six-week ban — both passed by Republican lawmakers. The trigger law was passed in 2019 and took effect when Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. It bans abortions except when carried out to save the life of the patient or to prevent disabling injury. It does not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest, which Beshear used to his advantage in the race with Cameron.
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