Three years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and sent abortion back to the states for regulation, elective abortion is illegal in Kentucky. Pro-life advocates in the state are celebrating, even as calls for building a culture of life in the commonwealth continue.
“The Dobbs [v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization] decision forever changed the legal and moral landscape of our nation,” said Addia Wuchner, executive director of Kentucky Right to Life in a June 24 press release.
“In Kentucky, that decision activated our trigger law and brought an end to the tragic era of legal abortion in our commonwealth … Today, we not only remember — we recommit ourselves to building a culture of life where every child is welcomed and every mother is supported.”
After a brief legal battle, Kentucky’s abortion ban was enforced on August 1, 2022. Since then, 46 legal abortions—those deemed medically necessary to save the life of the mother, prevent a substantial risk of her death or protect against serious damage to a life-sustaining organ of the pregnant woman—have been reported by Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS).
EMW Women’s Surgical Center, the state’s last independent abortion clinic, closed its doors in 2022. Providing elective abortion procedures up to 21 weeks, six days gestation, EMW first opened in 1981 and terminated 19,640 pregnancies between 2017 and 2022 alone—the only years the CHFS gathered data while EMW was operational. The building was put on the market in 2023 and is now set for demolition to make room for a parking lot, though EMW previously released a statement saying the business remains open.
The Family Foundation said that the pro-life battle is far from over.
“On this third anniversary of the Dobbs decision, we continue to thank the Lord for the reversal of Roe and for the babies who are alive today because of pro-life laws passed by our general Assembly. Life is a gift from God—so we rejoice in every life saved, in every mother protected and in every abortion mill that has closed its doors,” said David Walls, the policy organization’s executive director. “We must recommit ourselves to building a pro-life culture that values equal protection of each and every human life created in the image of God.”
Kentucky is one of 14 states that have banned or greatly restricted access to elective abortion since June 24, 2022. However, the patchwork legal status of abortion nationwide has not deterred women who seek the procedure.
The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research and policy organization, found that over 1 million clinician-provided abortions occurred in states that are protective of the procedure in 2024, a slight increase from 2023 and a continued increase compared to 2020. The Society of Family Planning also found that abortions have been on the rise across the US since Dobbs.
Approximately 155,00 people crossed state lines seeking abortion last year. That includes Kentuckians—1,910 went to Illinois, 2,280 to Ohio and 130 to Virginia.
By Tessa Redmond, Kentucky Today
