LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – Its survival on the line, Kentucky’s last abortion clinic is bracing for a pivotal legal showdown with health regulators and the state’s anti-abortion governor that could determine whether Kentucky becomes the first state in the nation without an abortion clinic.
The licensing fight, set to play out in a Louisville federal courtroom starting Wednesday, revolves around a state law requiring that EMW Women’s Surgical Center have agreements with a hospital and an ambulance service in the event of medical emergencies involving patients.
State regulators defend those conditions as “important safeguards” to protect women’s health. The clinic in downtown Louisville counters that the requirements lack any “medical justification” and amount to an unconstitutional barrier to abortion.
But the case’s significance goes beyond a debate about state law.
“The stakes in this case couldn’t be higher: the very right to access legal abortion in the state of Kentucky is on the line,” said Dr. Ernest Marshall, who opened the clinic in the early 1980s.