By Dave Andrusko
On November 8th, the voters of Kentucky voted down Kentucky Amendment 2 which stated “To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.”
“Passage of the measure would have guaranteed there is no state right to abortion in Kentucky’s constitution and would put an end to legal challenges seeking to overturn state laws that restrict or ban abortion,” reporter Deborah Yetter explained in a story that ran in the Louisville Courier-Journal. “Defeat of the amendment means that reproductive rights supporters may still seek to have abortion declared a state right through legal challenges to existing laws.”
Tomorrow, abortion proponents will attempt to persuade the Kentucky Supreme Court that Judge Mitch Perry was correct in his July 22, 2022 ruling. He issued a ruling, according to Addia Wuchner, RN, Executive Director of Kentucky Right to Life, to
continue blocking the Humanity in Healthcare Act of 2022 and the ‘Heartbeat Law’ of 2019. Abortions in Kentucky continue to be performed, despite the overturn of Roe and the “Trigger Law passed in 2019 in a bipartisan vote. That law ended abortion in Kentucky when or if Roe was overturned, with the exception of the health risk and medical condition of the mother.
Abortion supporters, such as pro-abortion Gov. Andy Beshear, believe “the amendment’s rejection should be a consideration as the justices hear the case,” the Associated Press wrote
“My hope is that the Supreme Court will listen to the will of the people and know that the people have rejected extremism and rule accordingly,” Gov. Beshear, a Democrat, said.
Opponents, such as pro-life Attorney General Daniel Cameron, believes there is no “right to abortion” squirreled away in the state Constitution:
In an op-ed that ran October 25, Cameron wrote
Shortly before Roe, Kentucky’s highest court considered a constitutional challenge to this statute. The court unanimously rejected the challenge and upheld the law. The court determined that deciding whether and when to prohibit abortion was a matter for the General Assembly and emphasized the court’s “obligation to exercise judicial restraint” regarding the will of the legislature.
For 49 years, our long history of protecting unborn life had been eclipsed by federal judicial activism, but thankfully the shadow of Roe has now lifted.