Judge strikes down Kentucky abortion law, saying it violates physicians' free speech

[DonViejo]

Source: The Courier-Journal




Darcy Costello, The Courier-Journal Published 10:43 p.m. ET Sept. 27, 2017 | Updated 11:16 p.m. ET Sept. 27, 2017


A Kentucky law requiring doctors who conduct abortions to first perform ultrasounds and describe the image to the patient violates the First Amendment rights of those physicians, according to a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge David Hale ruled Wednesday in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union's challenge to the law, made on behalf of the state's sole abortion provider, EMW Women's Surgical Center, and barred the state from enforcing it.

"This is a vindication of the rights of Kentucky women and their physicians, and it marks a significant victory against the General Assembly's overreach into the area of reproductive healthcare," William Sharp, the legal director of the ACLU of Kentucky, wrote in a news release.

House Bill 2, which was later signed into law, mandates that medical professionals perform an ultrasound on a woman and simultaneously explain what it is depicting before the woman provides consent for an abortion. Doctors also have to display the images and, if possible, let the woman listen to the fetal heartbeat.

Read more: http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2017/09/27/judge-strikes-down-kentucky-abortion-law-saying-violates-physicians-free-speech/711049001/

[BigOleDummy]

1. While Ray Moore.....

.....is in the headlines at the moment, his brand of religious intolerance is on the rise everywhere. I live across the river from Kentucky and practically my whole family lives there. I work there. I spent a big chunk of my life there and am as dismayed by the clowns who rule the state as any thinking person. Louisville's west end is seeing record violence levels (yes it's predominately black), and the Governor's solution? Prayer patrols on the blocks!!! Yes seriously. This is doubly sad because, believe it or not, I can remember a time when Kentucky was a fairly progressive State. Prison reform? Yes, Kentucky was in the forefront. Environmental legislation, yes again. They/we used to know for Henry Clay , Louis Brandeis. Abraham Lincoln was born there. (but so was Jefferson Davis)

Now......Kentucky brings to the world trumpinistas , county clerks who will not follow the law of the land, college student's who go on facebook to denounce their classmates to ICE. The list is too long and too sad to keep going, but McConnell and Rand Paul must be added before I go.