AG’s appeal to state’s highest court to overturn temporary stay on abortion law denied

Published 9:00 am Wednesday, July 6, 2022

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Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s plea to the Kentucky Supreme Court to reinstate the commonwealth’s “trigger” abortion law was denied late Tuesday night.

The first-term Republican AG  had filed two separate legal documents with the commonwealth’s highest court in response to a ruling last week by Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Mitch Perry that put a temporary restraining order on the Human Life Protection Act. The law – which was passed by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2019 and signed into law by former Gov. Matt Bevin – came into effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade almost two weeks ago and outlaws abortion procedures in Kentucky except for dire medical emergencies.

The law was challenged in court by the ACLU of Kentucky and Planned Parenthood on behalf of EMW Women’s Surgical Center and Louisville’s Planned Parenthood office – the last two clinics in the commonwealth that offer abortion services.

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Cameron appealed to the Kentucky Court of Appeals to have the law reinstated on June 30 – the same day the restraining order was issued – but his motion was denied prompting his appeal.

“We are exhausting every possible avenue to have Kentucky’s Human Life Protection Act and Heartbeat Law reinstated,” Cameron said in a news release earlier this week.  “There is no more important issue than protecting life, and we are urging the state’s highest court to consider our request for emergency relief.”

Judge Perry has scheduled a hearing regarding his temporary restraining order for Wednesday.