On Tuesday, The Kentucky Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over the state’s two abortion trigger laws that went into effect after the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year.
Roe v. Wade federally protected the right to an abortion, but the decision was returned to individual states after the Dobbs decision.
The state’s two abortion trigger laws – Human Life Protection Act and Heartbeat Law — took effect after the United States Supreme Court ruling in June.
The ACLU immediately filed lawsuits on behalf of EMW Women’s Surgical Center and Planned Parenthood, the only two abortion providers in Kentucky.
The abortion ban has been on a roller coaster in Kentucky ever since the overturning of Roe v. Wade triggered the ban in June, but in August, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s motion to reinstate the abortion rule that bans the procedure upon detecting a fetal heartbeat.
Cameron filed a brief in defense of Kentucky’s abortion laws ahead of the state’s Supreme Courts November arguments over the Commonwealth’s trigger abortion ban that went into effect over the summer.
“Kentucky case law clearly establishes that the General Assembly is the appropriate body to determine how Kentucky regulates abortion,” Cameron said. “The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs took this issue away from federal judges and returned it to the states, and our representatives must be given the opportunity to represent Kentuckians in this matter.”
The Supreme Court hearing comes on the heels of the midterm elections, where Kentucky voters voted down Amendment 2 — which would have eliminated the right to an abortion in the Commonwealth’s constitution.
In Northern Kentucky, two out of three counties voted against Amendment 2.
With the amendment failing, it leaves the door open for abortion access in the Commonwealth.
“Earlier this year, extremist lawmakers turned their back on Kentuckians and voted to strip us of our right to abortion,” said Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky State director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, on election night. “But tonight, Kentucky voters made it clear: We won’t back down when politicians try to come for our right to control our own bodies and our futures.”