State grants Planned Parenthood provisional license to perform abortions at Louisville clinic

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Starting in March, Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky will be allowed to provide abortion services at its Louisville Health Center.

In what the organization called "a significant win for reproductive health care in the state," Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky (PPINK) received a provisional license from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services "to offer a full range of reproductive health care, including abortion," it announced Friday in a news release.

PPINK's Louisville Health Center joins EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville as the second abortion provider in the state.

"Abortion access in Kentucky and across the country is at great risk, so while this is a step forward, the fight is far from over," Chris Charbonneau, CEO of PPINK, said in a news release. "We are glad to see the Cabinet for Health and Family Services follow the law and grant PPINK a provisional license because we met the requirements. All people in Kentucky deserve to make their own pregnancy decisions and to have access to safe and legal abortion."

With Friday's announcement, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services rescinded its earlier denial of PPINK's license application, and the lawsuit brought against the organization by former Gov. Matt Bevin in 2016 was dismissed, Charbonneau said.

Under Bevin, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services denied PPINK of a license to perform abortions in August 2019. In a letter to PPINK, cabinet Secretary Adam Meier cited the 23 unlicensed abortions the organization allegedly performed at its South Seventh Street facility between December 2015 and January 2016 as the reason why the license application was denied. The unlicensed abortions also prompted Bevin to file the lawsuit against the organization.

"The lawsuit filed under the previous administration was a blatant attack against reproductive rights and made no attempt to follow proper protocols and procedures," Charbonneau said.

Friday's announcement comes during a high-stakes federal court case that could determine the future of abortion in the state.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati held a hearing Wednesday to determine whether a law restricting the most common method of abortion is legal. The law would prohibit the use of the most common method of abortion, called dilation and evacuation, or D&E, after 11 weeks of pregnancy.

“We are going to, to the extent we can, limit a live dismemberment of a child in a womb,” Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Wednesday. “I think Kentucky has a right to do that. I think it says a lot about the values of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

A decision in that court case could take months, but Cameron said he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

Related Stories: