News
Featured Image
 Shutterstock

FRANKFORT, Kentucky (LifeSiteNews) –– The Kentucky Supreme Court rejected Thursday a bid by the abortion industry to block the Bluegrass State’s abortion bans from being enforced, ruling that a lower court “abused” its power in originally halting the laws.

Last July, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade the previous month, Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Mitch Perry granted abortion facilities in Kentucky an injunction against enforcement of two abortion-limiting measures, a heartbeat-based abortion ban and a general abortion ban designed not to take effect until Roe was overturned, which together effectively prohibit nearly all abortions.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron subsequently sought and obtained an emergency reversal of the injunction, while pledging his office would “continue to vigorously defend the constitutionality of these important protections for women and unborn children across the Commonwealth.” Now, the state’s highest court has affirmed that reversal.

“After thorough review, we hold that the abortion providers lack third-party standing to challenge the statutes on behalf of their patients. Notwithstanding, the abortion providers have first-party, constitutional standing to challenge one of the statutes on their own behalf,” the majority said, the Daily Caller reports. “We affirm the Court of Appeals’ holding that the circuit court abused its discretion by granting the abortion providers’ motion for a temporary injunction and remand to the circuit court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

A lower court will now consider whether the plaintiffs, Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky and EMW Women’s Surgical Center, have the proper standing to challenge the laws.

“Since the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade last June, we have vigorously defended Kentucky’s Human Life Protection Act and Heartbeat Law,” Cameron responded. “We are very pleased that Kentucky’s high court has allowed these laws to remain in effect while the case proceeds in circuit court.”

Across the country, Planned Parenthood has suspended abortions and/or closed locations in reaction to Roe’s fall, and pro-life attorneys general have declared their intentions to enforce their states’ duly enacted abortion prohibitions.

But leftists prosecutors in various localities have vowed not to enforce such laws, and pro-abortion activists have refocused efforts on interstate distribution of abortion pills, supporting interstate travel for abortion, and enshrining “rights” to abortion in state constitutions, ensuring that work and debate will continue over the prospect of banning abortion nationally.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has called on Congress to codify a “right” to abortion-on-demand in federal law, which would not only restore but expand upon the Roe status quo, by making it illegal for states to pass virtually any pro-life laws. Democrats currently lack the votes to do so, but whether they get those votes is sure to be one of the major issues of the 2024 elections.

0 Comments

    Loading...