Ky. Supreme Court hears arguments on abortion ban

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT) - Kentucky’s abortion laws were argued before the state’s highest court on Tuesday.

It is the result of the U.S. Supreme court turning abortion decisions back to states and Kentucky having a trigger law that banned most abortions.

Passed in 2019, Kentucky’s trigger law banned abortions after a heartbeat was detected and after six weeks of pregnancy.

Tuesday, attorneys argued over the abortion access decision for about an hour before the court and while protests chanted “no means no,” outside.

The chant was a reference to the vote on Election Day that saw the defeat of a proposed amendment to the Kentucky Constitution that said the constitution granted no right to an abortion.

The justices heard from an attorney with the Attorney General’s Office argue there is already no right to abortion in the constitution because it isn’t mentioned.

Attorneys for a Louisville women’s clinic and the ACLU say Kentucky’s trigger law is hurting access to women and health care.

There is no timetable on when justices will decide.

The attorneys arguing for abortion access say Kentucky laws will ban all abortions, but attorneys with the Attorney General’s Office say Kentucky lawmakers can always come back and revise to allow for rape and incest as Indiana did.

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