The Supreme Court has allowed the Attorney General of Kentucky to defend a pro-life measure.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Thursday said that the attorney general of the state of Kentucky has he legal right to defend a pro-life law despite the governor refusing to do so. Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron of Kentucky, who was elected in 2019 had appealed to a federal court to allow him to defend a pro-life law in the state that prohibits the procedure called "dilation and evacuation," which involves tearing apart an unborn fetus limb by limb before draining it out of the womb or birth canal.
According to the Christian Headlines, the abortion restriction was passed and signed into law in 2018 by Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, who was later replaced with Democrat Andy Beshear, Kentucky's current governor. Abortion providers filed a lawsuit in federal court in the hopes of overturning the pro-life law.
Gov. Beshear's administration refused to defend the abortion restriction, so Cameron filed a motion to intervene and defend the pro-life law. However, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Cameron may not intervene. Then on Thuresday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an 8 to 1 decision that Cameron had in factr the righr to mount a defense of the abortion restriction.
In the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito argued that the state of Kentucky has a "weighty interest" in "protecting its own laws." He cited how "Kentucky divides executive authority" and how the case took an "unusual course," which he believed "should not obscure the important constitutional consideration at stake."
The case in contention was focused on Cameron's desire to see the law defended instead of the legality of abortion. On Thursday, Cameron issued a statement saying, "At every turn, we've maintained that Kentucky's law banning live-dismemberment abortions is worth defending and should receive a full defense from the challenge brought by the ACLU and an abortion clinic."
Cameron underscored how the U.S. Supreme Court had "agreed" and that the resulting ruling was one that people "have hoped for." He said, "We will proudly continue to carry the mantle for this important pro-life law by going back to the Sixth Circuit and litigating the case."
Elsewhere in Kentucky, the state House has passed a bill that regulates medication abortions, WHAS 11 reported. On Wednesday, the Kentucky House voted to tighten restrictions on the dispensing of abortion pills and requiring women to be examined in person before being administered abortion medication. The anti-abortion law is the latest in a a slew of efforts to tighten abortion restrictions in the state. It won House passage after a 77 to 20 vote.
"Abortion is a human that we're extinguishing... We can't gloss over that humanity," Republican Rep. Jim DuPlessis said in support of the anti-abortion measure, which orders the state pharmacy board to oversee the distribution of abortion pills. The pro-life law also places new restrictions on the process through which a girl can request permission from a judge for an abortion in situations wherein getting a parent's consent is impossible or may put the girl in danger.
