Kentucky's abortion bans could once again end up before a judge. A pregnant Kentucky woman has filed a lawsuit seeking to have Kentucky's abortion laws declared unconstitutional.
The lawsuit was filed against Attorney General Daniel Cameron Friday in Jefferson Circuit Court by an anonymous woman known only as "Jane Doe". Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are working with the woman. Representatives say "Doe" is eight weeks pregnant and wishes to terminate the pregnancy.
"We are here today because of one incredibly strong and resolved Jane Doe, who is taking charge of her own life and is fighting on behalf of millions of her fellow Kentuckians to do the same," said Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai'i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky.
The suit will focus on the right to privacy and self-determination. In it, attorneys argue the right to privacy blocks the government from making decisions about a person's sexual and reproductive matters. They also argue that a person who is required by the government to remain pregnant "experiences interference of the highest order with her right to possess and control her own person."
At a press conference Friday, Amber Duke, the executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky, read a statement from the anonymous woman.
"This is my decision, not the government's, or any other person's. I am bringing this lawsuit because I firmly believe that everyone should have the ability to make their own decisions about their pregnancies," Duke read from the statement.
News of the lawsuit came the same day a Texas judge granted a woman permission to get an abortion. In that case, the fetus has a fatal diagnosis and the ruling only applies to that woman. ACLU and Planned Parenthood representatives in the Kentucky case did not specify whether the woman suing Cameron had a viable pregnancy. The Kentucky case is a class-action lawsuit, which representatives say would apply to any Kentuckians in a similar situation.
Pro-life advocate David Walls, the executive director of The Family Foundation, said he believes the suit is meritless.
"At the end of the day, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are really making an absurd argument. They are arguing that there's a secret, hidden right to an abortion, a right to kill an unborn child," Walls said.
This is the second time the organizations have brought a lawsuit, seeking to have the bans declared unconstitutional. In February, a lawsuit brought by the organizations and a doctor was dismissed because the Kentucky Supreme Court said they did not have the proper standing to bring the suit on behalf of their patients. An ACLU representative said they had been looking for a plaintiff like this woman ever since.
