Pregnant woman sues Kentucky for right to have abortion

Woman, who is eight weeks pregnant, wants to have abortion in Kentucky but cannot legally do so because of near-total ban

Associated Press in Louisville and Ava Sasani
Fri 8 Dec 2023

A pregnant woman in Kentucky filed a lawsuit on Friday demanding the right to an abortion, the second legal challenge in days to sweeping abortion bans that have taken hold in more than a dozen US states since Roe v Wade was overturned last year.

The suit, filed in state court in Louisville, says Kentucky’s near-total prohibition against abortion violates the plaintiff’s rights to privacy and self-determination under the state constitution.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/08/kentucky-woman-abortion-ban-lawsuit


Ohio, Kentucky show abortion rights matter – and Biden might not be such a drag for Dems

It's clear Americans continue to not like having their rights taken away, and that spells serious trouble for the Republican Party.

Rex Huppke, USA TODAY
Nov 8, 2023

Several political narratives died Tuesday night at the hands of voters, marking a nontragic and fully deserved end to days of nervous liberal-pundit blah-blah.

First, in Ohio, voters turned out and overwhelming approved a ballot measure that will enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution. There had been considerable brow-furrowing in Democratic circles about whether the issue of reproductive rights would remain as powerful a vote motivator as it was in previous elections held since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2023/11/07/election-abortion-ohio-issue-1-kentucky-virginia-vote-democrat/71495769007/


USA – Abortion debate has dominated this election year. Here are Tuesday’s races to watch

BY ROBERT YOON
November 6, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — The most-watched races in Tuesday’s off-year general election have all been dominated by the ongoing debate over abortion rights.

From a reelection bid for governor in Kentucky to a statewide ballot measure in Ohio to state legislative elections in Virginia, access to abortion has been a frequent topic in campaign debates and advertising, as it has since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in June last year overturning Roe vs. Wade.
Here’s a look at three major races and how abortion has shaped each contest.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/election-2023-kentucky-mississippi-governor-virginia-ohio-abortion-uvalde-houston-c1ebf7c4af31da60bd96a8158c86fb29


Will Abortion Dominate the 2024 Elections? Tuesday Will Offer Clues.

Lisa Lerer and Shane Goldmacher
(New York Times)
Sat, November 4, 2023

Abortion has emerged as a defining fault line of this year’s elections, with consequential contests in several states Tuesday offering fresh tests of the issue’s political potency nearly 18 months after the Supreme Court ended a federal right to an abortion.

The decision overturning Roe v. Wade scrambled American politics in 2022, transforming a long-standing social conflict into an electoral battering ram that helped drive Democrats to critical victories in the midterm races. Now, as abortion restrictions and bans in red states have become reality, the issue is again on the ballot, both explicitly and implicitly, in races across the country.

Continued: https://news.yahoo.com/abortion-dominate-2024-elections-tuesday-151158875.html


Kentucky couple ‘furious’ state abortion laws meant they couldn’t hold their daughter to say goodbye

By Elizabeth Cohen, Carma Hassan and Amanda Musa, CNN

Fri July 7, 2023

All Heather and Nick Maberry wanted to do was hold their dead baby, but strict Kentucky abortion laws meant they couldn’t.

They were “furious” that the laws meant they never got to kiss or cuddle their daughter, Willow Rose, or tell her goodbye, Heather said. “We’ll never know what her face looked like. We’ll never know what it was like to hold her in her arms,” she said. “We’re grieving someone that we’ve never seen.”

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/07/health/kentucky-abortion-anencephaly/index.html


USA – Woman says she was forced to travel for an abortion despite her fetus’s fatal condition

Heather Maberry's unborn child was diagnosed with anencephaly at 20 weeks.

By Mary Kekatos / Video byJessie DiMartino
June 15, 2023

A Kentucky mother of three says she was forced to travel out of state for an abortion despite her fetus being diagnosed with a fatal condition.

After Heather Maberry, 32, a substitute teacher from Stanton — about 100 miles southeast of Louisville — and her husband, Nick, got married last year, they were excited to try for a baby and expand their family.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/woman-forced-travel-abortion-despite-fetuss-fatal-condition/story?id=100065877


As abortions become harder to access, groups in Kentucky and Indiana raise money to help people get them

Louisville Public Media | By Morgan Watkins
Published May 21, 2023

Organizations across the country provide financial and other assistance to people seeking an abortion. And for a lot of people, it became much harder – and more expensive – to get an abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a nationwide right to abortion last summer.

Kentucky outlawed nearly all abortions last year. So now Kentuckians have to go to clinics in other states, like Illinois, Indiana and Virginia, to legally access abortion.

Continued:  https://www.wvxu.org/health/2023-05-21/as-abortions-become-harder-to-access-groups-in-kentucky-and-indiana-raise-money-to-help-people-get-them


‘It’s a public health risk’: nurse decries infection control at US anti-abortion crisis center

A Kentucky nurse tried to hold a pregnancy center accountable for the problems she saw – but such facilities are subject to little regulation

Laura C Morel
Thu 2 Feb 2023

At 52, Susan Rames was looking for a way to give back. She worked part-time at a Kentucky hospital as a postpartum nurse and, with her three children nearly grown, she had some extra time during the week.

Motivated by her Christian faith, Rames decided to volunteer at ALC Pregnancy Resource Center, a crisis pregnancy center whose mission is to discourage people from seeking abortions.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/02/kentucky-crisis-pregnancy-center-anti-abortion-malpractices


These states will have abortion on the ballot in November

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
 September 5, 2022

Voters in a small number of states will decide in November how those states should handle the abortion issue. Abortion rights have taken on an increased significance and become a top focus in the midterm elections after the US Supreme Court's ruling this summer that there was no longer a federal constitutional right to the procedure.

In its August primary, Kansas was the first state in the nation to let voters weigh in on abortion since the high court overturned Roe v. Wade, and Kansans overwhelmingly chose to reject a state constitutional amendment that would have given state lawmakers the green light to help enact more restrictive abortion laws,

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/05/politics/2022-midterm-elections-abortion-ballot-measures/index.html


Kentucky Enacts Near-Total Abortion Ban

Abortion is now effectively illegal in Kentucky, with the state enacting the country’s harshest restrictions so far. We need a mass movement to fight for safe, legal, and free abortion, on demand.

Otto Fors and K.S. Mehta
April 16, 2022

On Wednesday, Kentucky lawmakers essentially banned abortion. Effective immediately, abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy are illegal, except in medical emergencies, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

While abortions before 15 weeks technically remain legal, other provisions in the legislation will make it virtually impossible for doctors to perform the procedure. For example, providers must comply with onerous and invasive reporting requirements about the pregnant person’s past pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Providers also need to maintain admitting privileges at local hospitals — an enormous barrier, given that hospitals can deny such privileges at their discretion. Providers who want to prescribe medication abortions, which account for more than half of all abortions in the state, must now also register with the state, but since Kentucky lacks this kind of registration system, they have no way of performing the procedure.

Continued: https://www.leftvoice.org/kentucky-enacts-near-total-abortion-ban/