‘Vote NO on 2:’ Campaign launches against abortion-related amendment

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Kentucky’s trigger law took immediate effect, banning abortions in the state.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit, saying the ban violates the state’s constitution. A Jefferson circuit judge granted the ACLU’s request for a restraining order against the ban. Friday, the same judge granted a temporary injunction allowing abortions to continue in Kentucky while the case plays out in court.

According to the ruling, the court found a “substantial likelihood that these laws violate the rights to privacy and self-determination as protected by Sections 1 and 2 of the Kentucky Constitution.”

Attorney General Daniel Cameron responded to Friday’s ruling saying in part, “the judge’s suggestion that Kentucky’s constitution contains a right to abortion is not grounded in the text and history of our state’s governing document.”

An abortion-related constitutional amendment will be on the ballot in November. Kentuckians will not explicitly be voting “yes” or “no” to an outright abortion ban in the Commonwealth. However, if this amendment passes, it would take away constitutional protections for abortions in Kentucky. This would mean that people or groups, such as the ACLU, could not use the state’s constitution to defend the right to choose to have an abortion.

“This is one of the most important ballot questions that has ever been put on the ballot in the state of Kentucky,” said campaign manager for Protect Access Kentucky, Michael Muller.

Protect Kentucky Access has launched a campaign against Kentucky Constitutional Amendment 2. The organization hosted a campaign launch at Unitarian Universalist Church of Lexington on Friday morning.

“We’re just here obviously to kind of start the ground-game and letting folks know about Constitutional Amendment 2, and just try to educate folks and really help them understand the stakes,” said regional field organizer for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Kentucky, Jennifer Clay-Tucker.

They’re working to defeat Amendment 2 and build a sustainable movement to defend reproductive freedom. This is work that Christiana Wright feels is essential because it affects so many people.

“Many, many women have in the course of their life, had to make the choice, the difficult choice, around abortion. I know I have, and I don’t think I’m alone,” said, Christina Wright, a Salt Lick resident that came to Lexington for the campaign launch.

Michael Johnson, with the Family Foundation, an anti-abortion organization, challenges the notion of abortion being a form of healthcare.

“A woman’s health issue would be addressing the health of the woman. Here we have a separate human being inside the womb. Saying it’s a healthcare issue, it’s a false premise,” said policy director for the Family Foundation, Michael Johnson.