EMW Women's Surgical Center, P.S.C., et al. v. Daniel Cameron, et. al.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Kentucky, and Planned Parenthood Northwest, Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky filed a state court challenge on June 27, 2022 seeking to block two abortion bans, asserting the Kentucky Constitution protects the right to privacy and bodily autonomy.

In this lawsuit, the providers are seeking to block an outright abortion ban passed into law in 2019 that the Kentucky attorney general has threatened to enforce after the recent Supreme Court decision, and a six-week ban that was previously blocked by a federal court.

On June 30, 2022, the Jefferson Circuit Court issued a Restraining Order, temporarily blocking the enforcement of these two bans. On July 22, 2022, this court issued a Temporary Injunction for both bans. The Kentucky attorney general appealed this decision on July 28, 2022, seeking an emergency stay of the Temporary Injunction. On August 1, 2022, the Kentucky Court of Appeals dissolved the Temporary Injunction, allowing the bans to take effect while the case continues. Plaintiffs filed an appeal to the Kentucky Supreme Court on August 2, 2022. The Kentucky Supreme Court did not immediately reinstate the Temporary Injunction but ordered briefing and oral argument for November 15, 2022. On February 16, 2023, the Kentucky Supreme Court held that the abortion provider plaintiffs lacked third-party standing to assert their patients’ constitutional rights, and remanded the case to the Jefferson Circuit Court for further proceedings.

The ACLU, the ACLU of Kentucky, Craig Henry PLC, and O’Melveny & Myers LLP represent Plaintiffs EMW Women’s Surgical Center, P.S.C., on behalf of itself, its staff, and its patients and Ernest W. Marshall, M.D., on behalf of himself and his patients. Plaintiffs Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Indiana, and Kentucky, Inc., on behalf of itself, its staff, and its patients are represented by Planned Parenthood Foundation of America, Craig Henry PLC, and O’Melveny & Myers LLP.