Kentucky maintained its near-total abortion ban after the state’s supreme court ruled in favor of a challenge to an injunction against the law on Thursday.
The case before the Kentucky Supreme Court challenged the state’s ban on almost all abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy. The court was faced with a narrow legal issue appealed in the wake of the 2022 Supreme Court case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, that withdrew the federal protection for abortion, after which Kentucky’s “trigger law” banning most abortions took effect.
Justice Debra Lambert said in her judgment that Louisville Circuit Court Judge Mitch Perry was incorrect to suspend enforcement of abortion restrictions in July and that the appeals court was proper to reinstate the bans in August. However, she left open the possibility of hearing a future challenge on whether the right to abortion exists by implication under the Kentucky Constitution….