A Judge Has Temporarily Stopped Kentucky's Only Remaining Abortion Clinic From Closing

Earlier this week it was reported that Kentucky’s staunchly anti-abortion governor, Matt Bevin—who, along with his administration, has systematically dismantled the state’s abortion services—is now hellbent on shuttering the state’s one remaining abortion provider. The EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville was ordered to stop providing abortions beginning Monday, but, fortunately, that plan has been temporarily chilled.

On Friday, a federal judge granted the clinic a temporary restraining order, valid for 14 days, citing evidence that the, “rights of [the clinic’s] patients would be immediately and irreparably harmed,” without the court’s intervention.

Senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project Brigitte Amiri told CNN that lawyers on the team representing the clinic, “are thrilled and relieved that the court issued this order preventing the commonwealth of Kentucky from shutting down EMW. This means the women will continue to be able to get the critical care they need.

After being informed on March 13 that EMW would lose its license in 10 days (an extension until April 3 was later granted), on the grounds that its agreements with a local hospital and ambulance were “deficient,” EMW, joined later by the ACLU, filed a lawsuit.

In response to the order, EMW protested that the surgical center’s agreements with these facilities hadn’t changed in several years, and that they’d never been notified of any issues with these agreements before.

Amiri said in a statement earlier this week, “The state’s bureaucratic sleight of hand is fooling no one. This is an attempt to ban abortion in Kentucky, plain and simple. We are fighting to keep this from happening.”