The Supreme Court Just Let Kentucky’s Anti-Abortion Law Stand

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a Kentucky law that forces doctors to describe ultrasound images and play fetal heartbeat sounds to patients seeking abortion.

We denounce the high court’s decision to allow Kentucky’s latest abortion restriction stand.

(Charles Edward Miller / Creative Commons)

The Kentucky law is clearly designed to make it harder to access abortion—once again putting anti-abortion politics ahead of pregnant people’s reproductive health and rights. Politicians should not be allowed to come between patients and their doctors when it comes to making decisions about whether or not to have an abortion.

Reproductive Justice demands that we have the right to control our bodies, sexuality, gender, work and reproduction. Systemic racism and sexism have created tremendous barriers for Black women, femmes, queer, trans and gender non-conforming people and youth to access safe, affordable healthcare.

In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda is calling on the justices to uphold access to safe, legal abortion even as they prepare to hear arguments in June Medical Services, LLC v. Gee, which challenges Louisiana’s law requiring abortion doctors to have hospital admitting privileges. If allowed to take effect, the Louisiana law would leave only abortion provider in the entire state.

About

Marcela Howell is the founder and president of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda and the former senior policy and communications consultant for Communications Consortium Media Center and vice president of policy, communications and marketing at Advocates for Youth. She has a master's in literature from Saint Louis University and a J.D. from Pepperdine School of Law. You can follow Marcela on Twitter at @BlackWomensRJ.