A post-Roe Kentucky is here

Joe Sonka, Louisville Courier Journal
·3 min read
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The Supreme Court delivered its earthshaking ruling Friday morning to overturn Roe v. Wade and strike down the federal constitutional right to an abortion — leading to an immediate ban on the procedure in Kentucky and other states with a trigger law.

As Kentucky deals with the aftermath of the ruling, abortion rights advocates have filed a lawsuit to keep the procedure legal going forward, while we also took a look back at the career of a key figure in the state that made this day happen.

Also, Kentucky's senators split on a compromise gun bill that passed into law, while prominent Democratic officials are split on the pending nomination of a conservative federal judge.

Kentucky abortion ban in effect

Kentucky's only two clinics to perform abortions immediately stopped services after the Supreme Court ruling, as the state's 2019 trigger law went into effect to ban abortion, with no exceptions for rape and incest.

Reporter Debby Yetter has an account of the scene inside one of those clinics from Friday morning when patients were told they could no longer have the procedure, as well as a full rundown of what the abortion trigger law specifically means for Kentuckians.

However, those two abortion providers filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to restore the right to an abortion, arguing the trigger law conflicts with rights conferred by the state constitution. The judge in the case indicated he would rule on their proposed temporary restraining order by end of Thursday, saying the case "is a close call" and "I'm going to wrestle with this."

Besides the lawsuit, what is next on the issue? There's a statewide ballot referendum in the general election on a constitutional amendment to state that no right to an abortion exists in Kentucky, but what about the next legislative session next year?

Additional restrictions on forms of birth control like Plan B? Additional critical and civil penalties? Or adding exceptions to rape and incest in the trigger law? We shall see … watch this space.

Who gets the credit/blame on Roe?

Politics reporter Morgan Watkins took a look back a the career of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his dramatic shift on the issue of abortion — from a Jefferson County judge-executive obstructing local anti-abortion measures in the late 1970s, to an instrumental figure reshaping the Supreme Court with the conservative justices who struck down Roe.

Columnist Joe Gerth wrote that McConnell deserves much of the blame/credit for vanishing abortion rights — but gave special recognition to Democrats who didn't show up to vote for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race.

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Meredith

Speaking of post-Roe Kentucky, is President Joe Biden really going to nominate a conservative anti-abortion attorney to a lifetime federal judgeship in Kentucky?

According to Congressman John Yarmuth and others close to the matter, the Democratic president is poised to do just that, striking an apparent deal with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to nominate Chad Meredith, formerly an attorney in the offices of Attorney General Daniel Cameron and former Gov. Matt Bevin.

Democrats are scratching (or banging) their heads at the news, with Yarmuth stating his vehement opposition to the nomination, as "the last thing we need is another extremist on the bench."

The nomination isn't official yet, so let's see if Biden cares more about the deal than the criticism.

Gun bill compromise passes

Speaking of McConnell and compromises, a gun safety bill passed through Congress and into law last week, with the Kentucky GOP Senate delegation split on the bill.

Watkins breaks down what the bill does and why McConnell decided to take the rare move of voting for it, while Sen. Rand Paul cast a no vote.

In case you missed it …

Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today at the top of this page.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: A post-Roe Kentucky is here