GOP Gov. Matt Bevin is still trying to close one of Kentucky's last two remaining abortion clinics, demanding that the Kentucky Court of Appeals immediately issue an injunction to close the clinic in Lexington while the case is pending.
The Bevin administration asked the Kentucky Court of Appeals on Monday to overturn a lower court’s denial of the state’s request to temporarily close EMW Women’s Clinic on Burt Road.
The state said the appellate court should reverse a ruling last month by Fayette Circuit Judge Ernesto Scorsone and order a temporary injunction prohibiting the clinic from operating an abortion clinic until it receives a license from the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services or until the lower court makes a final judgment in the case.
The state claims the lower court misinterpreted and misapplied relevant state laws and relied on unwarranted assumptions and facts that were not in the court record.
Scorsone said the state cabinet failed to present adequate evidence during a hearing last month that it will eventually prevail in the lawsuit or that allowing the clinic to remain open as the lawsuit proceeds would cause “irreparable injury.”
Scorsone also said closing the clinic would be against the public interest, since it is the only physician’s office that routinely provides abortion services in the eastern half of Kentucky.
The state sued the clinic in early March, alleging that it lacked a required state license. The clinic stopped performing abortions on March 9 pending a judge’s ruling, but said it would resume after Scorsone’s ruling.
Scott White, an attorney representing the clinic, said “we’re confident that Judge Scorsone’s well-reasoned decision will hold up on appeal.”
We'll see if that appeal holds up or not. It's Kentucky after all, and if there's a reasonable chance that that the appellate court decides that Bevin's TRAP gambit will work, an injunction is very possible.
That would be awful, but then again, despite his protestations Bevin is nothing more than your standard right-wing GOP austerian, who has decided that the people of Kentucky must be punished until they are in line with "Christian values".
And so it goes in Bevinstan.
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