The Kentucky Supreme Court issued an order Thursday that will keep the door shut at the state’s only full-time abortion provider. The court’s opinion agreed with virulently anti-choice state leaders that EMW Women’s Clinic in Lexington lacked the proper licenses to re-start operations. The clinic was the only abortion provider able to serve many thousands of women in eastern Kentucky and beyond.
Under Kentucky law, any clinic deemed a “full-time abortion clinic” must obey very strict licensing laws. ENW argued that the facility was a women’s health clinic that also provided abortion services and was not subject to the licensure laws. The court disagreed:
“EMW has failed to demonstrate why it should be exempt from licensure as an abortion facility….”
Interestingly, the court made it rather clear that they wanted no part of the state government’s attack on women’s rights:
“Today’s case does not ask us to declare when life begins or to what extent the state may prevent a woman from terminating a pregnancy. Our review necessarily requires us to preview the merits of the Cabinet’s claim, but we again wish to be doubly clear that our statements today are in no way to be taken as this Court’s definitive position on whether or not EMW Lexington is legally considered an abortion clinic operating without proper licensure.”
This case shows why despite Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey being upheld time and time again, the fight for women’s reproductive rights is ongoing. For every Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt (the Texas case that struck down a restrictive abortion law,) there’s a case like that. Because every state has the right to legislate medical licensing and operation laws, pro-life state officials can make it extremely difficult for women in conservative states to have easy access to their constitutional rights. By chipping away at the number of clinics like ENW, states are, effectively, if not legally, getting around Roe v. Wade.
And who suffers? The women of Kentucky.
Here is a documentary about abortion in Kentucky:
Feature image via Kentucky Courts of Justice
