Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) asked the state’s Supreme Court on Sunday to reinstate an abortion ban that briefly went into effect following the overturning of Roe v. Wade but was later blocked by a lower court.
A judge on Thursday had temporarily blocked the implementation of two state laws, which would effectively ban abortion unless necessary to save the woman’s life, following a challenge from abortion-rights groups arguing that Kentucky’s state constitution protected abortion rights. An appeals court judge later denied a request from Cameron to reinstate the ban.
“We are exhausting every possible avenue to have Kentucky’s Human Life Protection Act and Heartbeat Law reinstated,” Cameron said in a statement. “There is no more important issue than protecting life, and we are urging the state’s highest court to consider our request for emergency relief.”
Cameron’s filings with Kentucky’s Supreme Court argue there is no right to abortion in the state’s constitution and that without an emergency ruling from it, unborn children will suffer immediate and irreparable harm.
Samuel Crankshaw — spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which represents one of the abortion providers in the suit — praised the appeals court ruling that affirmed blocking the law’s immediate implementation.
“We’re glad to see the Court of Appeals agrees the lower court has taken proper emergency action to protect abortion access,” Crankshaw said in a statement. “This win is temporary, but we won’t back down in the fight to defend Kentuckians’ most basic rights from extremist politicians like Daniel Cameron.”
Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, another plaintiff in the suit, did not immediately return a request for comment.
The U.S. Supreme Court last month upheld a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi, overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey decisions that established and protected a constitutional right to abortion.
Kentucky and other states had passed so-called trigger laws that automatically went into effect upon the court’s ruling. With officials now beginning to enforce those laws in states across the country, abortion activists have filed a flurry of lawsuits seeking to stop the newly implemented restrictions.
The strike-down of federal abortion rights has fueled intense anger for many, with liberals hoping the ruling will galvanize voters to support Democrats.