News
What the abortion debate in Kentucky reflects post-Roe America
By: PBS Newshour
Posted on:
WASHINGTON, D.C. (NewsHour) — Across America, midterm voters in five states had abortion rights on the ballot. In all five, voters decided to protect those rights.
Kentucky voters rejected a measure that would have amended their constitution to clarify that there is no state right to an abortion. The outcome hands a victory to abortion-rights supporters at a time when abortion access has been sharply limited by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature, yet it does not change the fact that abortion is still outlawed in Kentucky in most cases.
The PBS NewsHour’s Nicole Ellis spoke with Ryland Barton, managing editor of Kentucky Public Radio, and Tracy Weitz, a sociology professor at American University about how that could change, as Kentucky’s Supreme Court will hear a challenge on Nov. 15 to the two laws making abortion illegal, after it kept the bans in place this summer and fall while it reviews the case.