Woman challenging Kentucky abortion ban has ended her pregnancy but not the legal challenge
Republished from Kentucky Lantern
LOUISVILLE — Mary Poe, an anonymous Louisville woman who sued to overturn Kentucky’s abortion ban, has traveled out of state for the abortion she sought but couldn’t obtain in Kentucky.
A Wednesday court filing states Mary Poe, the woman’s pseudonym, is “no longer pregnant.”
‘Overwhelmed and frustrated,’ Louisville woman sues to overturn Kentucky’s abortion ban
“She recently traveled to another state to obtain legal access to the abortion care that she was denied in Kentucky due to the challenged bans,” the court filing states.
Poe will remain a plaintiff in this case, court documents say, because she “satisfied Kentucky’s constitutional standing requirements at the time of filing, when she was pregnant and seeking abortion care.”
Because of that, “this action continues to present a justiciable cause and should proceed,” the filing states. Poe is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.
At the time her lawsuit was filed on Nov. 12, Poe was about seven weeks pregnant. She said at the time that abortion was “the best decision for me and my family” and that she was “overwhelmed and frustrated” to have to travel for it.
Leaving the state “involves trying to take time off work and securing child care, all of which place an enormous burden on me,” Poe said at the time of filing. “This is my personal decision, a decision I believe should be mine alone, not one made by anyone else.”
Among others, Poe’s lawsuit names as defendants Attorney General Russell Coleman and Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander.
The case has been assigned to Jefferson Circuit Judge Tracy E Davis.
Read the court filing
abortion filing 4deb6071-9af8-4cef-b877-3b74ab256e09
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