The state's trigger law — designed to enact a near-total ban on abortion in the wake of the US Supreme court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade — cannot be enforced while the matter makes its way through the courts. That's the ruling of Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry, who said there is a "substantial likelihood" the ban runs afoul of privacy and other protections in the state constitution.
The ruling is a victory for the ACLU, which argued the trigger law is unconstitutional. Sam Crankshaw with the ACLU told WUKY in June that, if enforced, the law would have wide-ranging effects even for women who aren't seeking to terminate a pregnancy.
"There are people who this law will force... to have dangerous miscarriages or force them to continue a pregnancy that they know is not going to be viable, and people who may very much want to be pregnant but then may need to have an abortion who will not be able to get that healthcare."Sam Crankshaw, ACLU of Kentucky
But for now, enforcement is on hold.
Kentucky's Republican Attorney General, Daniel Cameron, is expected to take the case to the state appeals court. He's said the state constitution does not provide a basis for pausing the trigger law. After the Roe decision, Cameron said the legislature acted appropriately in approving the automatic abortion ban, and with bipartisan support.
"I appreciate and respect what the General Assembly has done and recognize that it reflects folks in all of our 120 counties. Again, there were 19 Democrats who voted for this in 2019."Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron
But Judge Perry says the trigger law may also be an unconstitutional delegation of authority, because it handed the decision over to a different jurisdictional body — namely the U.S. Supreme Court, according to the Associated Press.
For the moment, there doesn't appear to be an anticipated timeline on when the case may be resolved, but this fall Kentuckians will be able to vote on a ballot measure that would include specific language in the state constitutional ruling out a constitutional basis for protecting abortion rights.
