LOUISVILLE, Ky. (KT) – In 2023, 16 lives were lost to abortion in Kentucky.
A post-Roe abortion ban and heartbeat law in the commonwealth prohibit pregnancy terminations under all circumstances except where the life and health of the mother is at risk. The exception allows physicians to perform an abortion if he or she decides, within “reasonable medical judgment,” that the abortion is necessary to prevent death, a substantial risk of death or serious damage to a life-sustaining organ of the pregnant woman.
Seven months in 2023 saw between one and four abortions:
- 2 abortions in January
- 4 abortions on three women in March
- 1 abortion in April
- 4 abortions in May
- 2 abortions in August
- 2 abortions in November
- 1 abortion in December
The Cabinet reported to Kentucky Today that no abortions were reported to them in February, June, July, September and October.
Five abortions were performed in the first trimester of pregnancy, between six- and 10-weeks’ gestation. Eleven abortions were provided to women in their second trimester of pregnancy, between 14- and 21-weeks’ gestation.
All 16 women who received abortions in 2023 were unmarried residents of Kentucky; six reported their ethnicity as Hispanic and nine were not Hispanic.
Most 2023 abortions were performed using medication:
- One was reported as a “medical non-surgical” procedure
- 10 were drug induced (one of which named Misoprostol and another of which named Cytotec, the brand-name version of Misoprostol)
- One abortion listed “induction of labor” as the termination procedure
Two of those drug-induced abortions were performed on a single woman on one day, represented in one row of data but counted as two separate procedures in records released to Kentucky Today.
Four abortions reported the use of surgical means:
- One uterine wedge resection, where a section of a woman’s uterus is removed
- One laparoscopic ectopic resection (initially and incorrectly reported by the Cabinet as an ectopic rejection)
- One laparoscopic ectopic pregnancy removal
- One laparoscopic salpingectomy, a procedure that removes one or both of a woman’s fallopian tubes
The monthly records requested by Kentucky Today in 2023 represented the first time in six years of data reporting that the Cabinet listed ectopic pregnancy removal as an abortion procedure.
2023 was the first full calendar year Kentucky’s abortion bans were permanently in place; both were enforced in August 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade. Since then, the Cabinet has scaled back demographic information released to Kentucky Today, and the following data has not been reported since abortion was rendered illegal in the commonwealth: age, race or Hispanic origin of the pregnant woman, the facility where the abortion was performed, previous live births or other terminations. Those data points have not been issued since July 2022.
All data related to abortions performed in Kentucky are made available to the public through the Open Records Act and provided by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
Friends of Life KY 