By Tessa Redmond
In May 2022, 377 unborn lives were lost to abortion in Kentucky.
EMW Women’s Surgical Center, one of Kentucky’s two abortion providers, facilitated 314 abortions – bringing their 2022 total to 1,572 terminated pregnancies. Planned Parenthood in Louisville provided 63 abortions in May, raising their annual tally to 338 aborted fetuses.
Both abortion providers were closed for several days in April, but resumed their services shortly after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against, and then partially blocked, the law that prompted the closures. Abortion services were provided as usual in May following the legal battle.
First trimester abortions accounted for around 93% of the May total; only 28 abortions occurred between 13- and 21-weeks gestation, the second trimester window allowed under Kentucky law.
Medical abortions, which are typically performed using a two-pill regimen started in an abortion provider’s office and completed at home, accounted for just under 200 of voluntarily terminated pregnancies. Surgical abortions were performed on 178 women in May. Suction curettage and dilation and evacuation (D&E) – both common second trimester abortion procedures – ended the lives of 168 and 10 unborn lives, respectively.
Approximately 14% of women obtaining abortions were Hispanic, while 326 reported they were not Hispanic. White women had the most abortions per racial demographic for the fifth consecutive month this year; 143 Black women and 2 American Indian women terminating their pregnancies in May. The remaining 16% of women reported their race as other or unknown.
More than 300 Kentuckians obtained abortions in May. Women from Illinois, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia also terminated their pregnancies in the commonwealth.
All data related to abortions provided in Kentucky are made available to the public through the Open Records Act.
Friends of Life KY 