Kentucky woman seeking court approval for abortion learned her embryo no longer has cardiac activity

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A pregnant woman in Kentucky who filed a lawsuit demanding the right to an abortion has learned her embryo no longer has cardiac activity, her attorneys said Tuesday.

Her attorneys didn’t immediately comment on what effect the development would have on the lawsuit filed last week in a state court in Louisville. The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, was seeking class-action status to include other Kentuckians who are or will become pregnant and want to have an abortion. The suit filed last week said she was about eight weeks pregnant.

The attorneys urged other Kentucky women who are pregnant and seeking an abortion to reach out if they are interested in joining the case. The lawsuit says Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban violates the plaintiff’s rights to privacy and self-determination under the state constitution.

“Jane Doe sought an abortion in Kentucky, and when she could not get one, she bravely came forward to challenge the state’s abortion ban,” ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project deputy director Brigitte Amiri said in a statement Tuesday. “Although she decided to have an abortion, the government denied her the freedom to control her body. Countless Kentuckians face the same harm every day as the result of the abortion ban.”

Earlier this year, Kentucky’s Supreme Court refused to halt the state’s near-total abortion ban and another outlawing abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy. The justices focused on narrow legal issues but did not resolve larger constitutional questions about whether access to abortion should be legal in the Bluegrass State.

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Kruesi reported from Nashville, Tennessee.