Abortion ban temporarily blocked in Kentucky

Kentucky’s abortion ban on Thursday was temporarily blocked by a state court, allowing the medical procedure to resume in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. 

A Kentucky “trigger” law, which effectively bans the procedure in the state unless it is needed to save the patient’s life was blocked after Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry after he granted a restraining order to both.

“We’re glad the court recognized the devastation happening in Kentucky and decided to block the commonwealth’s cruel abortion bans. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe last Friday, numerous Kentuckians have been forced to carry pregnancies against their will or flee their home state in search of essential care,” the leaders of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Indiana, Kentucky, ACLU, and ACLU of Kentucky said in a statement. 

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) criticized the decision, saying the state would be challenging the decision.

“In the wake of an historic victory for life at the nation’s highest court, today, one judge in Kentucky has, without basis in the Kentucky Constitution, allowed two clinics to resume abortions. We cannot let the same mistake that happened in Roe v. Wade, nearly 50 years ago, to be made again in Kentucky. We will be seeking relief from this order,” he said in a statement. 

The development comes following the U.S. High Court’s ruling last week to eliminate the constitutional right to an abortion, leading a patchwork of states to begin banning the medical procedure.

Some state abortion laws in places like Utah and Texas have had to have their enforcement paused amid legal challenges that were filed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision.