ACLU sues Kentucky over ban on common abortion method after 11 weeks

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing Kentucky over a law that bans one of the most common abortion methods in the U.S after 11 weeks.

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) signed a bill into law Tuesday banning dilation and evacuation, a method commonly used in second-trimester abortions, after 11 weeks of pregnancy.

The ACLU quickly announced it would sue the state, arguing that the procedure is safe. 

{mosads}“We’re suing Kentucky yet again — this time to stop state politicians from banning a safe abortion method,” said Talcott Camp, deputy director with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project.

“This law disregards a woman’s health and decisions in favor of a narrow ideological agenda.”

Dilation and evacuation involves dilating the cervix and removing the fetus using suction and surgical tools. 

The ACLU argues the law, which took immediate effect, would force patients to travel hundreds of miles to get an abortion. The ACLU notes that Kentucky only has one abortion provider left after the state passed other restrictions. 

Supporters of banning the dilation and evacuation procedure describe it as “dismemberment abortion” and consider it to be cruel. 

“No society that aspires toward justice and compassion should turn a blind eye to a practice as barbaric as dismemberment abortion, in which defenseless unborn babies are torn limb from limb,” Marilyn Musgrave, vice president of government affairs for the Susan B. Anthony List, a national anti-abortion rights group, said in a statement when the bill passed the state legislature.