Abortion providers drop, at least for now, challenge to state's anti-abortion laws after failing to find a patient to be the plaintiff

Planned Parenthood's Louisville health clinic
Photo by Deborah Yetter, Kentucky Lantern

Kentucky’s two abortion clinics are dropping a legal challenge to the state’s near-total abortion ban, citing the state Supreme Court’s decision this year that they lacked standing to sue on behalf of potential patients. 

Planned Parenthood and EMW Women’s Surgical Center “said they have not given up and will continue seeking such a patient willing to come forward, allowing them to file a new challenge,” Deborah Yetter reports for Kentucky Lantern.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron, an anti-abortion Republican who has been defending the two state laws under challenge, called the voluntary dismissal of the court challenge a "legal victory for unborn life" and announced that "the elective abortion industry is out of business in Kentucky." 

Cameron said in a news release, “A society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable—especially the unborn.”

One of the laws at issue bans abortion after about six weeks, before some women realize they are pregnant; another bans almost all abortions. Both were invoked by a "trigger law" that took effect in late June 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal abortion protections and subsequently almost all abortion services in Kentucky. 

EMW and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit last June in state court arguing that the state constitution creates a right to abortion. Early this year a divided Kentucky Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that abortion providers lacked legal standing to challange the anti-abortion laws on behalf of patients, which "meant they had to find a patient affected by the law and willing to sue," Yetter notes. 

The providers' decision to drop the legal challenge was prompted by a deadline of Tuesday, June 20, to produce a plaintiff who is pregnant and wants a pregnancy termination but can't get it as a result of one or both laws, Alex Acquisto reports for the Lexington Herald Leader.

The providers said in a statement, "If you are in Kentucky, seeking an abortion, and want to know more about possibly being a plaintiff in a lawsuit like this, our phone lines are open for them to give us a call or text us at 617-297-7012."

Another case challenging the state's abortion laws remains pending. It involves three Jewish women from Louisville who "argue that the abortion laws — one of which defines life as beginning at conception — clash with Jewish teaching that life begins at birth. They also argue it limits their right to other care, such as in-vitro fertilization," Yetter reports.

Acquisto reports that Planned Parenthood continues to provide reproductive health-care services, but EMW was forced to close its doors after the high court's decision in February. In late May, EMW listed its building for sale. 

Judge refuses to stop Kentucky Spirit from leaving the state, saying health cabinet has had plenty of time to prepare

A Kentucky Court of Appeals judge refused on Monday to stop Medicaid managed-care firm Kentucky Spirit from leaving the state on Friday, July 5. Chief Court of Appeals Judge Glenn E. Acree denied the Cabinet for Health and Family Services' emergency motion to require the company to stay through August.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/07/01/2700062/court-refuses-to-block-kentucky.html#storylink=cpy

Last week, a Franklin Circuit Court judge said  the state can't require Kentucky Spirit to keep serving Medicaid beneficiaries two months beyond its July 5 exit date. When filing the emergency motion last week, Cabinet officials said that if Kentucky Spirit leaves the state without a two-month transition plan, it will “jeopardize the health” of 125,000 people.

However, Acree said the cabinet has had plenty of time to prepare for the company's departure, reports Beth Musgrave of the Lexington Herald-Leader. Furthermore, Kentucky Spirit said the state has refused to work with it to ensure an “effective” transition, and Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate said last week that the state has “been repeatedly cautioned by this Court to prepare for this contingency, and a lack of preparation at this junction does not warrant a grant of the extraordinary remedy of injunctive relief” requested by the state.

The cabinet argues that Kentucky Spirit did not communicate its intentions to leave, despite Wingate's May 31 ruling until the cabinet took Kentucky Spirit back to court earlier this month, reports Musgrave. However, Kentucky Spirit said in October 2012 that it was pulling out of Kentucky's managed-care system because it was losing too much money covering the 125,000 Medicaid enrollees contracted to the company.

So what will happen now? The cabinet has argued that the two other Medicaid managed care companies — Coventry Cares and WellCare — would take on the Kentucky Spirit beneficiaries and letters have been sent to Kentucky Spirit's clients and to health care providers.  A May ruling said Kentucky Spirit could face fines if it terminates its three-year contract before expiration in July 2014; Kentucky Spirit's appeal in that case is still pending. 

Faith-based alliances may be exempt from health-insurance mandate; Kentucky court case part of national question

Though the health-refom law requires all Americans to be enrolled in a health-insurance plan by 2014, Christians can be exempt if they pool their risk. Such is the message being spread by Samaritan Ministries and Christian Care Ministry.

Melissa Maynard of Stateline, a nonpartisan news service of the Pew Center on the States, reports the new law "does in fact contain language exempting faith-based groups from the requirement." That's because these ministries fall under the umbrella of "health care sharing ministries," in which members pool their money and their risk to help each other cover their medical expenses.

Christian Care Ministry is hoping to target 11 million Americans "it estimates profess Christian faith and are not covered by an employer's insurance plan," Maynard reports. Currently, only 100,000 households nationwide are members of health care sharing ministries.

However, states have a major role to play in implementing the law, and last fall, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Christian Care Ministry should be considered a regulated insurance plan since its members pool their risk. The group says it believes an agreement can be reached with the state, Maynard reports.

The issue will be debated in Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Montana, North Carolina and South Carolina this year, in part because conservative legislators are eager to sidestep implementation of the health reform law. (Read more)