Louisville, Kentucky
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A pregnant woman filed a lawsuit Tuesday to restore abortion rights in Kentucky, in the latest challenge to the state’s near-total ban on the procedure.

The suit, filed in state court in Louisville, claims Kentucky’s abortion-blocking laws violate the plaintiff’s constitutional rights to privacy and self-determination. Both state laws are being asked to be overturned by a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge.

The woman, a state resident identified by the pseudonym Mary Poe to protect her privacy, is about seven weeks pregnant, the suit says. She wants to terminate her pregnancy but cannot legally do so in Kentucky, it said.

Deciding whether to become pregnant or not is among “the most personal and important decisions a person will make in their lifetime,” the lawsuit states. Her legal team includes attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Without the ability to decide whether to continue a pregnancy, Kentuckians have lost their right to make critical decisions about their health, bodies, lives and futures,” the lawsuit states.

The plaintiff said in a statement that terminating the pregnancy was the best decision for her and her family.

“I feel overwhelmed and frustrated that I cannot access abortion care here in my own state and have begun the difficult process of arranging to receive care in another state where it is legal,” she said in the statement issued by the ACLU of Kentucky. “This involves trying to take time off work and provide childcare, all of which put a huge burden on me.”

Defendants in the latest suit include Russell Coleman, Kentucky’s Republican attorney general.

“It is the attorney general’s responsibility to defend the laws passed by the General Assembly, and we will work diligently to uphold those laws in court,” Coleman said in a statement.

The lawsuit was quickly denounced as lacking merit by David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation, a conservative group that strongly opposes abortion.

“The ACLU’s suggestion that the Kentucky Constitution somehow secretly contains a hidden right to end the life and stop the heartbeat of an unborn human being, despite Kentucky’s clear 150-year pro-life history, is absolutely absurd Walls said in a statement. .

The lawsuit seeks class action status to include other people who are or will become pregnant and want the right to an abortion. It challenges Kentucky’s near-total trigger law ban and a separate six-week ban, both passed by Republican legislative majorities.

The trigger law went into effect when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 2022 and bans abortions except to save the patient’s life or prevent disabling injury. It does not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest.

The process is similar to legal action taken almost a year agoalso by a pregnant woman seeking an abortion in Kentucky. That challenge was dropped after the woman learned her embryo no longer had cardiac activity, but abortion rights groups said the legal battle was far from over.

In 2022, Kentucky voters rejected a ballot measure that would have denied any constitutional protections for abortion, but abortion rights advocates have made no inroads into the Republican-controlled Legislature to gut the laws.

Kentucky Supreme Court refused last year to stop the almost total ban, which has resulted in the fact that access to abortion remains virtually closed in. Abortion rights groups sought plaintiffs to challenge the ban.

Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said Tuesday that bans in Kentucky and elsewhere have “wreaked havoc on people’s lives.”

“Those who can muster the resources may be able to travel out of state to receive care, but others will be forced to carry their pregnancies to term against their will, often at great cost to their health or lives,” Amiri said in a statement.

The plaintiff in the new trial said the decision to end her pregnancy should be hers.

“I’m bringing this case to make sure other Kentuckians don’t have to go through what I’m going through and instead can get the health care they need in our community,” she said.