Abortion access dwindling in Kentucky's neighboring states

WUKY | By Josh James

Published August 7, 2023 at 4:09 PM EDT

A crowd cheers as Jim Caviezel speaks during a "rosary rally" on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023, in Norwood, Ohio. A national religious organization, Catholics for Catholics, gathered a lineup of anti-abortion influencers and conspiracy theorists from across the U.S. to speak at the rally to urge a “yes” vote on a ballot question in Ohio, known as Issue 1. If voters approve Issue 1, it would make it more difficult for an abortion rights amendment on the November ballot to succeed. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Kentuckians seeking an abortion have fewer and fewer surrounding states to turn to, with Indiana set to enact a near-total ban next month. Tuesday, Ohio voters will decide on a ballot question that could make it harder to enshrine abortion rights into the state’s constitution.

As clinics in Indiana shut down access to abortion ahead of the state’s new restrictions taking effect, another of Kentucky’s northern neighbors is battling it out over a measure that would create a higher threshold to amend the state’s constitution. That would, in turn, make it more difficult for abortion advocates to get abortion rights written into the Ohio's core document.

The majority of states surrounding Kentucky now have abortion bans or heavy restrictions in place. They include Tennessee, Missouri, and West Virginia. Access to abortion is still protected in Virginia and Illinois.

Planned Parenthood of Illinois had prepared for years for the possibility of Roe v. Wade falling, and it opened clinics near the Indiana and Wisconsin borders in 2018 and 2020 in anticipation of those states restricting access to abortion.