Update 12/12/2023: The Kentucky woman who filed a lawsuit demanding that she be allowed to abort her baby has reportedly suffered a miscarriage. The lawsuit stated that she was about eight weeks pregnant at the time of its filing.
According to NBC News, the woman’s attorneys intend to move forward with the lawsuit but did not say if the woman’s miscarriage will affect it. She had filed the lawsuit under the name Jane Doe and was seeking class-action status to include other women in Kentucky who are — or will become pregnant — and want to have an abortion.
Most preborn children in Kentucky are protected from abortion, which is only allowed in cases in which the mother’s life is at risk or to “prevent the serious, permanent impairment of a life-sustaining organ” of the mother. Induced abortion — the direct and intentional killing of a child in the womb — is never medically necessary. If a pregnancy must end to save a mother’s life, doctors use preterm delivery or emergency C-section rather than induced abortion. In either of those procedures, a baby is not intentionally killed before delivery.
12/11/2023: Reminiscent of recent lawsuits against the state of Texas, the state of Kentucky is now being sued by a woman who says she has the right to an abortion, claiming her rights to privacy and self-determination under the state constitution. The plaintiff, only identified as Jane Doe, said she is eight weeks pregnant and wants an abortion. She is also seeking class-action status, so other women in Kentucky who may want an abortion can join.
“I am a proud Kentuckian and I love the life my family and I have here, but I’m angry that now that I’m pregnant and do not want to be,” the plaintiff said in a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), one of the groups backing her challenge. “The government is interfering in my private matters and blocking me from having an abortion. This is my decision, not the government or any other person’s.”
In addition to Jane Doe, the lawsuit lists Planned Parenthood as a plaintiff. The abortion organization was forced to drop a lawsuit in June, as they did not have a plaintiff willing to say they had been harmed by Kentucky’s law protecting preborn children. In a statement, Planned Parenthood said finding a plaintiff had been a “major barrier” to their lawsuit. Nearly six months later, it seems Planned Parenthood has finally found someone.
“These bans have harmed countless Kentuckians since going into effect last year, and we are relieved to be back in court to try to restore abortion access in Kentucky,” Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement. Yet it seems “countless Kentuckians” have not been harmed, considering how difficult it was for the abortion industry to find someone willing to stand with them.
The lawsuit asks for Kentucky’s law protecting preborn children to be completely overturned.
“Jane Doe brings this action on behalf of herself and a class of similarly situated people who are now or later become pregnant and seek an abortion in Kentucky but cannot obtain one in the Commonwealth because of the challenged abortion bans,” the lawsuit reads. “To protect the constitutional rights of Plaintiff Jane Doe and the class she represents… this Court must declare the Bans unconstitutional and permanently enjoin their enforcement.”
In a statement, David Walls, executive director of the Family Foundation, a pro-life organization in Kentucky, said the lawsuit was meritless.
“This new abortion industry lawsuit is as meritless as the previous failed challenge. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU’s suggestion that the Kentucky Constitution somehow secretly contains a hidden right to terminate the life and stop the beating heart of an unborn human being, despite Kentucky’s clear 150-year pro-life history, is absolutely absurd,” David Walls said.
“Kentucky’s pro-life laws are saving babies and protecting mothers every day. It is truly sad to see how far the billion-dollar abortion industry is willing to go in this attempt to resume killing unborn children for profit. Kentucky must hope that our state judges resist the temptation to put their own personal ideologies above the law and infringe upon the duly enacted pro-life laws of our Commonwealth.”
