Kentucky Just Became the First State to Effectively Ban All Abortions – Mother Jones

Point out Rep. Randy Bridges (R-Paducah) provides a thumbs down as protesters chant “Bans off our bodies” at the Kentucky point out Capitol.Ryan C. Hermens/AP

The only two abortion clinics in Kentucky have been pressured to shut down, properly ending the course of action in the complete point out, immediately after the Republican-controlled Kentucky Basic Assembly on Wednesday overrode the governor’s veto of an extremist bill that integrated a 15-week abortion ban with out exemptions for conditions of rape or incest.

In a statement, Prepared Parenthood, which operates one particular of the two clinics, explained that the “laundry listing of onerous and avoidable requirements” in the monthly bill known as HB 3 created it untenable for it to continue treatment with no possibly functioning afoul of the new law.

“If a mom can get rid of her individual youngster, what helps prevent us from killing ourselves and one an additional?” State Sen. Stephen Meredith explained in his remarks overturning Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto.

The Kentucky legislation went into impact right away. It comes as the newest entrance in the war on abortion that has swept pink states in excess of the past calendar year forward of the Supreme Court’s possible final decision to overrule Roe v. Wade later this yr. As pointed out in Tuesday’s publication, a equally draconian ban was signed into regulation in Oklahoma just this week:

The regulation threatens abortion providers with a felony, punishable by up to a 10 years in prison, and allows for only one particular exception: treatments important to save the daily life of the mom. Beneath the legislation, which is scheduled to choose result this summer months, people today who have been impregnated as a outcome of rape or incest will have to have their pregnancies to time period.

But it is essential to observe the ripple outcomes these guidelines have on women of all ages who vacation to close by states in research of suppliers to perform abortions:

The result of the Oklahoma ban will not be restricted to inside of the state’s borders. When the Texas “bounty hunter” regulation went into influence in September 2021, Oklahoman abortion companies served a higher proportion of females who still left Texas for abortions than any other state—a good 45 p.c of sufferers, in accordance to researchers at the University of Texas, Austin. With that route soon to be closed off, gals in both Oklahoma and Texas will have to request the method in a quick-shrinking range of spots. 

That domino result is most likely intentional—and has accelerated the increase of clandestine underground abortion networks during the region. Meanwhile, abortion advocates, together with those in Kentucky planning to sue the condition for HB 3, say that the new bans are incredibly probably unconstitutional.