LOUISVILLE — Between 2014 and 2021, 6,162 people called the Kentucky Health Justice Network Abortion Support Fund to seek financial help to get an abortion.
In a new study published last week, researchers analyzed calls made to the abortion support fund and compared them with the Kentucky Department for Public Health’s records of abortions.
And while the available data paints a picture of life in the years before the United States Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, researchers said they think the data is relevant in a post-Dobbs world.
“We talk a lot about reproductive autonomy and having the ability to make choices that are best for us and the reproductive context,” said Melissa Eggen, one of the researchers and a faculty member at the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences. “And we know that in a post Dobbs world, that restrictive policies don’t allow for that agency or autonomy.”
Advertisement
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, which had guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion, in 2022, a “trigger law” went into effect in Kentucky that banned abortions. Another law bans abortions after six weeks. Doctors have previously said many people don’t know they’re pregnant at the six-week mark.
That same year, Kentucky voters rejected an anti-abortion amendment that would have stated definitely that there is no right to an abortion in Kentucky’s Constitution.
Kentucky does not have exceptions for rape or incest, though both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have filed unsuccessful bills to change that in recent years. There is an exception in cases where the life of the pregnant person is at risk.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others have argued to no avail that the restrictions Kentucky has in place are unconstitutional.
Advertisement
Melissa Eggen (photo provided)
Eggen and her co-researchers found a higher percentage of people who called the abortion fund for help were Black, younger than 30 and further along in their pregnancies than the population in the KDPH’s abortion records.
They concluded young, Black Kentuckians were more likely to need financial assistance or emotional support to get an abortion. Medicaid, the federal-state program that pays for health care for lower-income people and those with disabilities, did not cover Kentucky abortions before the procedure was outlawed in most cases.
Advertisement
“We also know that those are people who are impacted most negatively by poor outcomes” during and after pregnancy, Eggen said.
In 2023, the KDPH found Black women were twice as likely to die around childbirth than their white counterparts. Kentucky is about 87% white, according to the United States Census Bureau. Meanwhile, about 9% of the population is Black and 4% is Hispanic. Source: Maternal Mortality Review, Kentucky Department for Public Health.
For the June 21 study, “we’re looking at a period of time in Kentucky when abortion was getting more restricted, but we didn’t have a total ban,” said Mikaela Smith, a research scientist with Ohio Policy Evaluation Network at The Ohio State University.
“This can serve a little bit as a case study for states that still have abortion available, but are trying to further restrict it. So in that way, we can say…‘Hey, here’s what happened with Kentucky.’”
The study
Mikaela Smith (photo provided)
Researchers sought to “assess characteristics of abortion fund callers” with their research.
To do so, they analyzed KHJN’s administration records showing the age, race and pregnancy gestation of people who called the abortion fund. They then compared those data points with abortion data from the public health department.
They found the fund “supported” — financially and otherwise — 6,162 people during the seven years before Roe V. Wade was overturned. During that time, 28,741 people had abortions in Kentucky.
Advertisement
The people who called for help in getting their abortions were more likely to be at least 14 weeks gestation.
“Compared with state data, KHJN supported a higher percentage of young people, people of color, and people at later gestations,” the report concluded. “These findings support evidence that structurally vulnerable groups are more likely to face barriers to care and that abortion funds provide essential support necessary for reproductive equity.”
These findings are “not too surprising,” Smith said. However, “being able to apply it in this specific political context felt really important.”
Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Brian Edwards has ruled against a motion made by three Jewish women seeking to challenge Kentucky’s abortion ban on religious grounds.
In a 9-page Friday night opinion, Edwards wrote the women do not have standing and that their concerns are “hypothetical.”
Citing several precedential cases, the judge said the issue was not yet a concrete problem and lacked “ripeness.”
“Individuals cannot manufacture standing merely by inflicting harm on themselves based on their fears of hypothetical future harm that is not certainly impending,” Edwards wrote.
Advertisement
Louisville judge hears arguments in Jewish women’s challenge of Kentucky’s abortion ban
Therefore, he wrote, “plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate the existence of a justiciable controversy as defined by generations of case law.”
This comes more than a month after the judge heard oral arguments, which heavily focused on in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the extent to which it overlaps with the state’s abortion ban.
One of the plaintiffs has nine frozen embryos that she’s paying thousands of dollars annually to preserve, just as Kentucky lawmakers are split on what protections exist for IVF in the state.
The women’s lawyers — Benjamin Potash and Aaron Kemper — argued that by banning most abortions, Kentucky had imposed and codified a religious viewpoint that conflicts with the Jewish belief that birth, not conception, is the beginning of life.
Advertisement
They also said their plaintiffs — Lisa Sobel, Jessica Kalb and Sarah Baron — feel Kentucky’s current laws around abortion inhibit their ability to grow their families.
Benjamin Potash, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, told the Lantern in a text that the decision “makes numerous obvious errors,” such as basing part of the ruling on a reading of Roe V. Wade, which had established the constitutional right to abortion but was overturned in 2022 by the United States Supreme Court.
Assistant Attorney General Lindsey Keiser defended the law on May 13 for the state attorney general, who praised Friday’s decision “to uphold Kentucky law.”
“Most importantly, the Court eliminates any notion that access to IVF services in our Commonwealth is at risk,” Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a statement. “Today’s opinion is a welcome reassurance to the many Kentuckians seeking to become parents.”
Potash said the judge’s decision is “disappointing” and said “we look forward to review by higher courts.”
Advertisement
“After 13 months of waiting, we received a nine page decision that we feel fails to comport with the law,” he said. “Our nation is waiting for a judiciary brave enough to do what the law and our traditions require.”
Register now for Kentucky Association for Gifted Education 2025 Annual Conference
The Kentucky Association for Gifted Education (KAGE) 2025 Annual Conference will be held on Feb. 10-11, 2025 at the Marriott Griffin Gate Resort in Lexington.
KAGE, officially organized in 1979, is a non-profit volunteer group of parents, teachers, administrators, other educators, and all citizens interested in promoting appropriate educational opportunities for gifted and talented youth in Kentucky.
Advertisement
KAGE members are advocating at state and national levels for more appropriate educational opportunities for high-ability students. They commit to representing state education personnel and government officials, as well as state organizations, in the needs of children who are gifted and talented.
Members focus on providing workshops and conferences such as their annual conference that brings together educators, parents, and community members to expand the understanding of giftedness and the needs of these high-ability children and youth.
Early bird pricing is available until June 30 at the rate of $250 for members and $280 for non-members for the two-day conference.
You can find additional information and sign up for the KAGE Conference by visiting the KAGE website.
