A Jewish Kentuckian is moving forward with a challenge to the state’s near-total abortion ban after a lower court previously dismissed a lawsuit from her and two other women who argue the state ban violates their religious freedom, and could endanger their ability to undergo in vitro fertilization procedures.
The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled Friday that Jessica Kalb has the standing to sue over the state’s abortion ban and sent her case back to the lower court.
Kalb has nine embryos frozen and awaiting implantation, disposal, or donation. She already canceled an implantation in 2022 because she feared the state’s abortion laws could be used against her, according to court records. The appeals court also pointed to the fact that Kalb is still paying to keep those embryos frozen.
“Should she continue to do so in perpetuity because the government will not clarify what she can and can’t do with them? No,” the ruling reads. “This is not a speculative issue because these embryos currently exist, and Ms. Kalb is entitled to know her options without fear of potential legal peril.”
Unless the Kentucky Attorney General’s office decides to appeal to the state Supreme Court, the case will go back to the trial court to rule on the merits of the argument, not just whether Kalb has the ability to sue in the first place.
In Kentucky, only pregnant women in imminent danger of death or permanent injury are legally allowed to access an abortion in the state. In an attempt to further clarify that exception, a new law passed this year allows doctors to provide an abortion in case of an ectopic or molar pregnancies and cases of sepsis or hemorrhage when an impending or completed miscarriage causes a “life-threatening infection or excessive bleeding.”
The women argue that Kentucky’s laws are too vague and confusing, so they don’t know whether they’re allowed to get certain fertilization treatments, especially ones that require clinics to discard embryos.
Read the rest at Louisville Public Media.
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