Reproductive Rights Rally Challenges Kentucky’s Abortion Ban

As Kentucky lawmakers gathered on Thursday, advocates for reproductive rights assembled in the Capitol rotunda, denouncing the state’s near-total abortion ban as harsh and urging legislators to overturn it. 

The Rev. Elwood Sturtevant, a board member of the Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, challenged the notion that access to abortion is at odds with religious beliefs. “The majority of religious individuals do not endorse abortion bans,” he remarked, referencing the backing for reproductive rights from non-evangelical Protestants, Black Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and humanitarian advocates.

Kentucky implemented stringent abortion restrictions in June 2022 following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which removed federal protections for abortion rights. The state's trigger law swiftly prohibited the procedure in almost all instances, except situations where the mother's life is endangered.

Attorney Beth Salamon, a state policy advocate for the National Council for Jewish Women, highlighted the importance of safeguarding religious freedoms beyond any one ideology. “We have laws in Kentucky that safeguard religious liberty, but whose religious liberty is truly being safeguarded?” she inquired.

Salamon further said, “As a leader within the Louisville Jewish community, I take pride in advocating for reproductive freedom through a faith-based lens.”

The rally, organized by Planned Parenthood, united religious leaders and activists who contend that the abortion ban unfairly affects marginalized communities and limits individuals' ability to make choices aligned with their faith and beliefs.

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