LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A federal judged ruled Friday that House Bill 454, a bill that would ban most abortions in Kentucky after 11 weeks, is unconstitutional.
The bill easily passed the General Assembly last year and was signed into law by Gov. Matt Bevin. However, it was never enforced because the EMW abortion clinic in downtown Louisville and the ACLU challenged the bill, which would ban a procedure called dilation and extraction (D&E). Opponents say the procedure, which usually performed in the second trimester, dismembers the fetus.
U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley Jr. ruled the bill is a "violation of a woman's Fourteenth Amendment rights to privacy and bodily integrity." McKinley's ruling Friday is a permanent injunction, keeping the law from going into effect.
“Today’s ruling affirms that health, not politics, will guide important medical decisions about pregnancy," Alexia Kolbi-Molinas, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement. "Laws like this are part of an orchestrated national strategy by anti-abortion politicians to push abortion out of reach entirely. Today’s decision holds — in no uncertain terms — that Kentuckians and the care they need come first."
Elizabeth Kuhn, a spokeswoman for Bevin's office, released a statement on the ruling:
"We profoundly disagree with the court’s decision and will take this case all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, to protect unborn children from being dismembered limb by limb while still alive. We intend to appeal today’s decision to the Sixth Circuit, and we are confident that this statute will ultimately be upheld."
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