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

On June 24, 2022, abortion provision in Kentucky effectively stopped after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the federal constitutional right to abortion and 50 years of precedent. On June 27, 2022, Kentucky abortion providers EMW Women’s Surgical Center, P.S.C; Ernest Marshall, MD; and Planned Parenthood Northwest, Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Indiana, and Kentucky, Inc., filed a state court lawsuit challenging two abortion bans. The providers sought to block an outright abortion ban passed into law in 2019 that became effective following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision, and a six-week ban that was previously blocked by a federal court. In this lawsuit, the providers asserted that the bans violate their patients’ rights to privacy and self-determination under the Kentucky Constitution.

On June 30, 2022, the Jefferson Circuit Court issued a Restraining Order, temporarily blocking the enforcement of the two bans. On July 22, 2022, this court issued a Temporary Injunction for both bans, continuing to block enforcement of the 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 continued. 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 issued a decision that did not reach the merits of the claims that the abortion bans violate Kentuckians’ constitutional rights. Instead, the Court held that the abortion provider plaintiffs were not the proper parties to assert their patients’ constitutional rights, and remanded the case to the Jefferson Circuit Court. Following this remand, on June 22, 2023, Plaintiffs and Defendants agreed to dismiss the case. On June 27, 2023, exactly one year after the case was initially filed, the Jefferson Circuit Court dismissed the case without prejudice. The Kentucky Supreme Court left the door open for individual Kentuckians to challenge the abortion bans by asserting their own constitutional rights to privacy and self-determination.

In the original lawsuit, the ACLU, the ACLU of Kentucky, Craig Henry PLC, and O’Melveny & Myers LLP represented 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. Plaintiff Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Indiana, and Kentucky, Inc., on behalf of itself, its staff, and its patients were represented by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Craig Henry PLC, and O’Melveny & Myers LLP.