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The archive contains articles related to near total abortion bans. The content is associated with the Kentucky Lantern, indicating a focus on abortion legislation or issues relevant to Kentucky.

After a year-long Medicaid ban that ended in July, Planned Parenthood in Kentucky reports a small decrease in patients and increased self-pay, but officials say they are committed to staying in the state despite potential future funding threats. The organization is actively endorsing candidates in the upcoming midterms and plans to push for 2027 legislation to make Medicaid cover STI testing and improve access to hormone replacement therapy in Kentucky.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman filed a lawsuit Thursday against Mayday Health, alleging the national nonprofit broke state law by advertising abortion services in the state, in one case flying a banner over the Kentucky State Fair. The lawsuit, filed in Logan County Circuit Court, accuses Mayday of “engaging in unfair, false, misleading or deceptive […]

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and lawyers for three Jewish women are asking a Louisville judge to reconsider his ruling that struck down the state's definition of human life as too vague in relation to abortion and in vitro fertilization (IVF). The ruling, which affects Kentucky's Human Life Protection Act, was challenged because it conflicts with Jewish beliefs about when life begins and restricts IVF practices involving unused embryos.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman joined 21 other states in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block the mailing of mifepristone prescribed via telehealth, aiming to protect prenatal life and state abortion regulations. Coleman stated this action is to safeguard the health and safety of Kentuckians amid federal efforts to expand telehealth access to abortion medication.

Republican Kentucky Rep. Vanessa Grossl spoke at the 2026 Planned Parenthood Rally in Frankfort, marking the first time a Republican lawmaker has addressed the event, emphasizing access to contraception as essential to individual liberty. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear also addressed the rally via video, advocating for unrestricted health care access in Kentucky despite the state's strict abortion ban lacking exceptions for rape and incest.

Chante Burg, a Louisville woman who nearly died from an ectopic pregnancy in 2024, urged Kentucky lawmakers to repeal the state's abortion ban, citing delays in her emergency care due to legal confusion. Despite petitions and support from over 600 medical providers, Kentucky's Republican-controlled legislature has maintained strict abortion restrictions, including rejecting exceptions for rape and incest.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has subpoenaed six gas stations in Christian, Logan, and Simpson Counties over advertisements for Mayday Health, a nonprofit providing abortion resource information, suspecting they may be involved in unlawful distribution of abortion pills into Kentucky. A 2022 Kentucky law prohibits dispensing abortion medication via mail or delivery except by a nonsurgical abortion provider, and Coleman has vowed to hold accountable those facilitating illegal abortion pill distribution in the state.

On the 53rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Kentucky advocates including Lexington Democrat Lindsey Burke and representatives from the ACLU of Kentucky and Planned Parenthood criticized the state's abortion ban for worsening maternal health and limiting healthcare access. Burke has introduced bills to restore abortion access to pre-trigger law levels and protect privacy for those seeking abortions, citing cases like a Wolfe County woman charged with fetal homicide as evidence of the dangers posed by punitive abortion laws in Kentucky.

A fetal homicide charge against a Wolfe County woman accused of taking abortion medicine and burying a developed male infant has been dropped because Kentucky's fetal homicide law exempts the pregnant woman from prosecution. The woman remains charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant under Kentucky law.

Kentucky State Police charged Melinda S. Spencer of Campton with first degree fetal homicide, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence after she took medication to complete an abortion and buried a developed male infant in a shallow grave on her property. The case is under investigation amid Kentucky's strict abortion laws with few exceptions.

Kentucky is among 13 states with the most restrictive abortion laws, including full bans with few exceptions, affecting about 15.8 million rural residents in these states. Rural Americans, including those in Kentucky, face increased travel distances to access abortion care, exacerbating existing challenges post-Roe v. Wade overturn.