Kentucky’s Supreme Court has kept the state’s near-total abortion ban in place, affirming the reversal of a temporary injunction that halted the law while a circuit court considers a challenge from abortion rights supporters.
This is yet another huge victory for the GOP and the pro-life movement.
The decision upholds an appeals court decision to block the Jefferson Circuit Court injunction on the abortion trigger ban. As a result, abortions will be banned until the case goes back to the circuit court.
In a lengthy order issued Thursday morning, Justice Debra Lambert wrote for the majority that the trial court which granted the injunction incorrectly found that patients and providers faced irreparable harm if a pair of anti-abortion laws went forward.
She found that abortion providers do not have first-party standing to challenge a so-called heartbeat ban, which bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy or to challenge a trigger ban, which prohibits almost all abortions, on behalf of their patients.
More details from The Beltway Report:
Meanwhile, Kentucky’s Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron, praisedthe court’s decision as a “significant victory.”
“We will continue to defend laws that protect the unborn and stand up for the unborn by defending these laws,” he said.
The legal challenge was brought by two Louisville abortion providers who argued that the ban violated their patients’ constitutional rights. However, the court ruled that the providers lacked the “third-party standing” to do so.
The court noted, though, that the providers do have “first-party” constitutional standing to challenge the near-total ban, pointing to “financial harm” as sufficient grounds for such standing.
The court’s ruling follows the rejection of a ballot measure last year that would have denied any constitutional protections for abortion, and comes after arguments were heard a week after the November midterm elections.
This was just the latest victory for the pro-life movement which has taken centerstage around the dinner table over the last several months. People on both sides have strong opinions, obviously but, at least in this case, the unborn win.
Sources: TheBeltwayReport, FoxNews