According to the, Thursday’s Kentucky abortion law was stopped by a federal judge. Washington Post.
Thursday’s temporary injunction by a federal judge blocked a Kentucky law that would have essentially halted abortions. The Kentucky abortion law was passed last week. This decision allows two Kentucky clinics to continue performing abortions.
U.S. District judge Rebecca Grady Jennings, Louisville, approved Planned Parenthood’s request for emergency assistance. Both clinics will reopen next week.
It comes less than a week after the governor of Democrat was overruled by the state Senate. Andy Beshear’s veto to pass the legislation, which seeks to ban abortion after 15 weeks of gestation, into law on April 13, as our sister publication Townhall.com reported last week.
The Louisville Courier JournalSharing details about the new law on abortion:
HB 3 prohibits mail delivery of medications used to end an abortion. This is despite the fact that it has been approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This requires that the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services creates a comprehensive system for monitoring, certification, and registration of anyone producing, shipping or dispensing the medication.
This cabinet will enforce the rules regarding production and provision of medications.
Also, the law requires that the state create an internet site listing addresses and names of all those who provide abortion medications. People can then file anonymous complaints online. All complaints would need to be investigated by the cabinet.
[…]
HB 3 also bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy — current Kentucky law bans it after 20 weeks — and puts new restrictions on abortions for girls under 18, including those seeking permission from a judge in certain circumstances and requires fetal remains to be disposed of through cremation or burial.
According to the Washington Examiner, U.S. District Judge Jennings, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, pointed to the “enforceability of the provisions,” rather than whether or not the law has constitutional merit.
This monitoring system is a good example. [to track the production and prescription of abortifacients]It does not exist yet so that abortion providers can’t comply with the law. Jennings used that argument to stop the law being implemented.
“The Court does not consider at this stage the constitutionality of the substance of the requirements in HB 3, but merely the enforceability of the provisions based on the impossibility of compliance,” Jennings wrote.
The Courier Journal included one argument from the state’s other clinic (the Bluegrass state currently has only two) to the court:
Lawyers for EMW said allowing the law to stand would “force patients to remain pregnant against their will” and would adversely affect their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
Rebecca Downs, my Townhall.com colleague wrote Monday that the closure of abortion centers is solely their fault.
That these facilities are choosing to no longer perform abortions is because they’ve chosen to do that, as they can’t or won’t comply.
She also noted that “[t]he EMW Women’s Surgery Center is represented by the ACLU.”
The hold on Kentucky’s law follows the United States Supreme Court agreeing to hear oral arguments last December on the 2018 Mississippi pro-life bill, which they are expected to rule on later in 2022, as well as several red states, including Oklahoma and Florida, passing strong, pro-life legislation over the past few months.
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