Months after the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled in favor of two state laws protecting virtually all preborn children from abortion, Planned Parenthood has dropped its lawsuit, though the corporation insisted it will continue to fight.
Tamarra Wieder, director of Kentucky Planned Parenthood, told LEX 18 that they plan to continue their court fight, but first, they need to find a plaintiff who has been allegedly harmed by the laws. The Kentucky Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year found that the abortion industry could not file suit on behalf of their patients:
“The abortion providers do not have third-party standing to challenge the trigger ban or the heartbeat ban on the grounds that those statutes violated their patients’ constitutional rights, and they do not have first-party, constitutional standing to challenge the heartbeat ban,” the ruling reads, further explaining, “The abortion providers do not have third-party standing to assert the constitutional rights of their patients. They therefore have presented no arguments against the heartbeat ban that this Court can address to provide them relief leaving the redressability prong of constitutional standing unsatisfied as to the heartbeat ban.”
Wieder indicated they were forced to drop the suit because they couldn’t find a plaintiff who had been harmed by the laws in time, and said it had been a “major barrier.”
Addia Wuchner, the executive director of Kentucky Right to Life, said it proves Planned Parenthood doesn’t have the legal standing to continue the case, which Wieder said was untrue. “Just because we didn’t meet a deadline, doesn’t mean we hold these laws to be just,” Wieder said.
The ACLU said it would be willing to represent any plaintiff who wanted to sue. However, it seems that no one has come forward.
Two laws will now be able to remain in place. The first is a heartbeat law, which protects preborn children from abortion once a heartbeat can be detected, typically around six weeks gestation/LMP. The second is a trigger law, which also protects virtually all preborn children from abortion, and took effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
“We are gratified that the abortion providers recognized their case should be dismissed,” Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said in a statement. “As a result of our efforts, I am proud to say that the elective abortion industry is out of business in Kentucky.”
