Women Seek Ways to Circumvent Kentucky Abortion Ban

LOUISVILLE, Ky (WAVE) — As the Commonwealth watches state Supreme Court debates on the future of Kentucky’s abortion ban, Kentucky women are talking about making tough personal decisions.

“Almost every day I hear about a woman who is scared,” said Cassie Chambers Armstrong, Louisville Metro Advisor. “As someone who has a one-year-old and a three-year-old, I’m constantly surrounded by women at a similar life stage to where I am, which makes our families grow. And people are terrified of what happens if they get pregnant and something goes wrong and the pregnancy is not viable.

Before the state ban, there were 4,441 abortions in Kentucky. Almost all of them were at the two Louisville suppliers. People providing help say some women are now seeking out-of-state abortions in places like Illinois and Virginia.

“Over the past few months, we’ve helped 150 to 170 women each month at a single clinic in Louisville. When it closed, we didn’t know where the women were going,” said A Fund Inc. president Kate Cunningham.

A Fund Incorporated is spending up to $20,000 a month through a hotline for Kentucky women who are now seeking abortions in states where they are still legal. But Cunningham said her workload after the ban had dropped from providing financial assistance to dozens of women a month to just 15.

“So either of the women found resources on their own, which I think is highly unlikely,” Cunningham said. “Or maybe they have access to medical abortion, the pills.”

The PlanCPills.org website has state-by-state information, including Kentucky, on how to get abortion pills.

Cunningham said a medical abortion could reduce the cost to hundreds instead of thousands.

Councilman Armstrong led the push for safe zones around Louisville abortion clinics. She now finds that the ban affects women’s decisions even before they become pregnant.

“So I actually have several close friends who, because of where we are, have said I’d rather just go ahead and have surgery to make sure I can’t fall again. pregnant,” Armstrong said. “Because being pregnant right now is such a scary thing to think about.”

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