New class-action lawsuit challenges Kentucky abortion bans. What we know

A Kentucky woman is suing the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, including Attorney General Daniel Cameron, to overturn the total ban and six-week ban on abortion, according to a release from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Jane Doe, who used a pseudonym to protect her identity, filed the class-action lawsuit Friday on behalf of herself and any other person who is pregnant or could become pregnant and would want to get an abortion. She is eight weeks pregnant but wants to terminate it and cannot do so in Kentucky because of the abortion bans, which took effect last year.

"I am angry that now that I am pregnant and do not want to be, the government is interfering in my private matters and blocking me from having an abortion," Doe said in the release. "I am bringing this lawsuit because I firmly believe that everyone should have the ability to make their own decisions about their pregnancies."

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Joining Doe in the suit are Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai‘i, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky, which is being represented by attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kentucky, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Craig Henry PLC, and O'Melveny & Myers LLP.

Kentucky's near-total "trigger" ban on the procedure and its prohibition on abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy were instituted in 2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned by a Supreme Court decision.

Among the claims stipulated in the lawsuit, Doe says that establishing rulings to be enacted without approval from the General Assembly goes against the Kentucky Constitution.

"Section 60 of the Kentucky Constitution provides that 'No law . . . shall be enacted to take effect upon the approval of any authority other than the General Assembly, unless otherwise expressly provided in this Constitution,' the lawsuit states. "This means that the General Assembly cannot make a law’s life and vitality depend upon the affirmative act of another."

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Ebert Haegele, division chief for the Commonwealth’s Attorney's Office, said they received a copy of the lawsuit Friday and are awaiting the final deposition for pending cases before commenting.

Claims made in a lawsuit only represent one side of the case.

Here are the claims the abortion lawsuit stipulates

1. The total ban violates the right of privacy of each individual and, based on this, each person should have the right to seek an abortion if needed.

2. The total ban violates the right of each person to have control over themselves and their body.

3. The total ban violates three sections of the Kentucky Constitution that stipulate that the General Assembly has the authority in determining what is considered a crime. "The General Assembly left it to the U.S. Supreme Court to determine the point at which abortion becomes a crime under Kentucky law," the lawsuit states.

4. The total ban violates Section 60 of the Kentucky Constitution that the General Assembly is the government branch that enacts laws and left it to it become effective based on decisions made by the United States Supreme Court.

5. It claimed the six-week ban also violates the right to privacy, as stated in the first claim.

6. It claimed the six-week ban also violates the right of self-determination, as stated in the second claim.

7. It claims pregnant people "are suffering, and will continue to suffer, immediate and irreparable injury in the absence of injunctive relief preventing Defendants from enforcing the Bans."

8. The last claim is a declaratory judgment for the total ban and the six-week ban. “[A]ll laws … contrary to this Constitution, shall be void," according to the lawsuit.

"We at the ACLU of Kentucky said we would not rest until access to abortion was restored in our commonwealth," said Amber Duke, the executive director for the ACLU of Kentucky. "We hope for a victory that aligns with the will of the people and overturns these unconstitutional bans.”

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This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky abortion ban challenged by lawsuit, Planned Parenthood