A Kentucky woman filed a lawsuit in Jefferson County Tuesday seeking to strike down Kentucky’s near total abortion ban. The ACLU is representing her in the case in their latest attempt to overturn the state’s ban.
The woman, who is identified as Mary Poe, is roughly seven weeks pregnant according to the lawsuit. She said in a statement that she should have the ability to access reproductive care in her home state to make the choice that’s right for her family.
“I feel overwhelmed and frustrated that I cannot access abortion care here in my own state, and I have started the difficult process of arranging to get care in another state where it’s legal,” Poe said in a statement. “This involves trying to take time off work and securing child care, all of which place an enormous burden on me. This is my personal decision, a decision I believe should be mine alone, not one made by anyone else.”
Poe is suing over two of the state’s strictest abortion bans — the trigger law, which has been interpreted as the current law of the land, and a six-week abortion ban.
The lawsuit also seeks to become a class action suit, representing any pregnant Kentuckians trying to access an abortion in the state who cannot due to the ban. The current ban on abortions in Kentucky only allows the procedure if necessary to prevent imminent death or permanent injury to the mother.
The ACLU of Kentucky previously tried to overturn the abortion ban in courts by representing the state’s two remaining abortion clinics, but the Kentucky Supreme Court said abortion providers do not have standing to sue on behalf of their patients. In another attempt, a woman who was also just a few weeks pregnant sued in a class action lawsuit, but the ACLU dropped the case after she learned her embryo no longer had “cardiac activity.”
Amber Duke, the ACLU of Kentucky executive director, said their path to challenging the ban has been “quite a rollercoaster.” Duke said the bans violate Kentuckians’ right to determine their own health care.
“Kentucky's constitution has really strong rights to privacy, really strong language about the right to self determination and the right for Kentuckians to determine their own path,” Duke said. “We feel that that includes the right for people to make these very personal and private health care decisions in regards to abortion access.”
Kentuckians voted down a constitutional amendment in 2022 that would have added language denying a right to abortion. It remains an open question, legally speaking, whether the Kentucky Constitution protects a right to abortion.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
