The Kentucky Supreme Court on Thursday declined to block two abortion restrictions in the state, denying a request from abortion rights groups and clinics that sued to be allowed to continue operating while legal challenges play out.
In this lawsuit, the providers sought to block a “trigger” abortion ban passed into law in 2019 that became enforceable after the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, and a six-week “heartbeat” ban that was previously blocked by a federal court.
A circuit court judge previously entered a temporary injunction, which was stayed by the appeals court. The state Supreme Court declined to reinstate the injunction.
In her opinion, Justice Debra Lambert wrote that the clinics did not have standing to challenge the statutes on behalf of their patients. They do have constitutional standing to challenge the trigger ban on their own behalf, she wrote.
Lambert left the door open for patients to sue on their own behalf, and noted there is still an open question about “whether the right to abortion exists by implication under the Kentucky Constitution.”
“This opinion does not in any way determine whether the Kentucky Constitution protects or does not protect the right to receive an abortion,” Lambert wrote for the majority. “Nothing in this opinion shall be construed to prevent an appropriate party from filing suit at a later date.”
Kentucky voters in November rejected a ballot measure that would have explicitly said there is no constitutional protection for abortion in the state.
The American Civil Liberties Union in Kentucky as well as Planned Parenthood then argued that the abortion bans violated the constitutional right to privacy.
