Lawsuit challenging Kentucky's near-total ban on abortions is withdrawn

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Attorneys for a woman who sued Kentucky seeking to restore the right to an abortion have dropped their challenge to the state's near-total ban on the procedure.

The attorneys filed a motion Friday to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit, but did not give a reason for seeking to drop the case. The lawsuit had been filed last year in state court in Louisville on behalf of a woman who was seven weeks pregnant at the time and identified only by the pseudonym Mary Poe to protect her privacy.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which had represented the woman, said in a statement it would not give additional details about the dismissal.

“People have the right to control their own bodies without government interference, and we will never stop fighting to restore abortion access in Kentucky,” said Amber Duke, executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky. “We are strategizing our next steps in this fight.”

The lawsuit was challenging Kentucky’s near-total trigger law ban and a separate six-week ban, both of which were passed by Republican legislative majorities. The trigger law took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“Kentuckians can be proud that our pro-life values won the day today and innocent lives will continue to be saved as a result,” Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, a Republican, posted on X.

The trigger law bans abortions except to save the life of the patient or to prevent disabling injury. It does not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Republican lawmakers earlier this year inserted several new medical exceptions, though abortion-rights supporters said the exceptions don't add clarity and in fact undermine the judgment of doctors by remaining silent on other situations.