The Kentucky Supreme Court on Tuesday scrutinized oral arguments in a case that will likely dictate the future of abortion access in the commonwealth.
The legal challenge before the high court was initially filed in a circuit court in late June by Kentucky’s two abortion clinics, EMW Women’s Surgical Center and Planned Parenthood, after the state’s trigger law and six-week abortion ban became law. The trigger law criminalizes abortion in all circumstances except in medical emergencies that threaten the life of a pregnant person, and the six-week ban outlaws abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy, typically when fetal cardiac activity is first detected.
Both clinics assert in their joint lawsuit that because the state’s abortion bans revoke access to comprehensive health care, including abortion, the laws violate an individual’s right to privacy and bodily autonomy, which are protected under the Kentucky Constitution.
