Director, Commonwealth Policy Center

The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services recently found EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville to be out of compliance with state law regulating abortion clinics. The breech could have resulted in the closure of Kentucky's last remaining abortion clinic but U.S. District Judge Greg Stivers issued a preliminary injunction to keep EMW open. He cited due process concerns and said that the "rights of [the clinic's] patients would be immediately and irreparably harmed" without the order. While EMW was found to be in violation of the law, the judge believed a greater harm would be done to women if EMW closed. But isn't the greater violence done to the plain language and meaning of the law and then turning a blind eye to what really goes on behind the doors of the abortion center?