A total of 20 states are backing Kentucky in its efforts to ask the country's highest court to uphold its ban on dismemberment abortions.
Attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia filed an amicus brief on Wednesday in support of Kentucky's House Bill 454.
Led by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, the coalition argued that "States have an important sovereign interest in defending the constitutionality of their laws that is fundamental to our dual-sovereign system of government and must be respected by all branches of the federal government, including the judiciary."
Kentucky's former Gov. Matt Bevin signed HB 454 into law in 2018. HB 454 is an act that prohibits the dilation and evacuation (D&E) method of abortion, otherwise known as dismemberment abortion, for unborn children at 11 weeks or more. This procedure is commonly done during the second trimester of pregnancy.
Dismemberment abortion, as the name suggests, involves the use of forceps to grasp a body part of the unborn baby. The forceps is then withdrawn while rotating gently in order to remove the body part. The procedure is done until every body part has been taken out of the uterus.
Shortly after HB 454 was passed, EMW Women's Surgical Center and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit to block the dismemberment abortion ban. In the same week, U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley ruled that HB 454 was unconstitutional because it violated the 14th amendment.
McKinley said the dismemberment abortion ban denies women of their constitutional right to abortion before the period in which the unborn child is considered viable, which is at 24 weeks, according to Courier Journal.
Bevin issued a statement saying they are prepared to fight for the law "all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, to protect unborn children from being dismembered limb by limb while still alive."
In June, a federal appeals court struck down HB 454 once more. The U.S. Sixth District Court of Appeals voted 2-1 against the dismemberment abortion ban, North Kentucky Tribune reported.
"HB 454 imposes an undue burden on not just a large fraction, but all of the individuals it restricts, and so facial relief is appropriate. We cannot rewrite HB 454 in order to limit that relief to certain especially unconstitutional applications of the law. Accordingly, we affirm the district court's grant of facial relief in the form of a permanent injunction," the ruling said.
Attorney General Daniel Cameron said he was disappointed with the court's decision, but he remained determined to take the necessary steps to defend the law and "protect the unborn from a gruesome procedure."
In October, Cameron took the case to the Supreme Court. The attorney general is asking the highest court to uphold HB 454, WDRB reported.
Cameron said HB 454 speaks of Kentucky's "profound respect for the dignity of human life." Once more, he stated he would "pursue every means available" to ensure that the state's law banning dismemberment abortions is upheld.
"We've fought to defend this law since our first day in office, and now, I'm asking our nation's highest court to consider it," he said.
