By CatholicVote | Created at 2024-11-14 21:26:31 | Updated at 2024-11-21 13:33:11
6 days ago
CV NEWS FEED // A pregnant Kentucky woman, identified by the pseudonym Mary Poe, filed a lawsuit in Jefferson County Circuit Court on November 12, challenging the state’s abortion ban.
Under Kentucky law, abortion is banned after six weeks, unless necessary to “prevent the death or substantial risk of death due to a physical condition, or to prevent the serious, permanent impairment of a life-sustaining organ of a pregnant woman.”
The lawsuit, Mary Poe v. Russell Coleman, et al., argues that the bans violate the state constitutional rights to privacy and self-determination, WYMT Eastern Kentucky News reported.
“I am about seven weeks pregnant, and I have decided that ending my pregnancy is the best decision for me and my family,” Poe stated. “This is my personal decision, a decision I believe should be mine alone, not one made by anyone else,” she continued.
Poe claims that the ban has compelled her to seek an abortion out of state, placing an “enormous burden” on her as she arranges childcare and attempts to take time off work.
The lawsuit also calls for the court to certify a class of all pregnant Kentuckians who are similarly unable to receive an abortion due to the ban.
Poe is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kentucky, which supports the legal challenge.
In a news release announcing the lawsuit, Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, stated that abortion bans have “wreaked havoc on people’s lives” across the country.
Amiri lamented that women who cannot afford to travel out of state for abortions have been “forced to carry their pregnancies to term against their will, often at great cost to their health or lives.”
