Woman Who Sued for Abortion Learns Fetus Has No Heartbeat

A pregnant woman in Kentucky who filed a lawsuit demanding the right to an abortion has learned her embryo no longer has cardiac activity, her attorneys said Tuesday. Her attorneys signaled their intent to continue the challenge to Kentucky's near-total abortion ban, but did not immediately comment on what effect the development would have on the lawsuit. The complaint was filed last week in a state court in Louisville. The plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe, was seeking class-action status to include other Kentuckians who are or will become pregnant and want to have an abortion. The suit filed last week said she was about eight weeks pregnant, reports the AP.

The flurry of individual women petitioning a court for permission for an abortion is the latest development since Roe v. Wade was overturned last year. The Kentucky case is similar to a legal battle taking place in Texas, where Kate Cox, a pregnant woman whose fetus has a fatal condition, launched an unprecedented challenge against one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the US. Cox has since left the state to have the procedure elsewhere. Unlike the Texas case, little is known about the Kentucky plaintiff. Her attorneys have insisted they would fiercely protect their client's privacy, stressing that Jane Doe believes "everyone should have the right to make decisions privately and make decisions for their own families," Amber Duke, executive director for the ACLU of Kentucky, said last week.

Earlier this year, Kentucky's Supreme Court refused to halt the state's near-total abortion ban and another outlawing abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy. The justices focused on narrow legal issues but didn't resolve larger constitutional questions about whether access to abortion should be legal in the state. Kentucky voters last year rejected a ballot measure that would have denied any constitutional protections for abortion, but abortion rights supporters have made no inroads in the Republican-controlled Legislature in chipping away at the state's anti-abortion laws. (More abortion rights stories.)