DOORS STILL OPEN

Federal Judge Keeps Kentucky's Last Abortion Clinic Open

The judge called a 1998 law the governor was attempting to use to close the clinic over “technicalities” unconstitutional.

A federal judge kept Kentucky’s last abortion clinic open Friday when he struck down a state law that “required abortion clinics to have written agreements with an ambulance service and hospital in case of emergency,” Mother Jones reports. Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration argued the EMW Women’s Surgical Center’s license should be revoked because the agreements the clinic had in place did not fulfill “technicalities in the 1998 state law.” Planned Parenthood joined the clinic's lawsuit challenging the state law, and argued that it “imposed medically unnecessary obstacles for women seeking abortions.” Judge Greg Stivers found the state law unconstitutional, citing a case involving a similar Texas law that caused over half of the state’s abortion clinics to close before it was declared unconstitutional. “The challenged regulations are not medically necessary and do absolutely nothing to further the health and safety of women seeking abortions in the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” Stivers wrote in his ruling.

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