LOUISVILLE, Ky. (KT) – Between January and June of 2024, 14 abortions were provided to Kentucky residents — a corrected figure issued by the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH).
New records obtained by Kentucky Today from the DPH’s Cabinet of Health and Family Services include the update. It is a correction of previous communications from the Cabinet, which stated records related to abortions performed in Kentucky did not exist at the time of previous Open Record requests submitted well after state law dictates such records are to be submitted to the Cabinet each month.
“This information has recently become available and is responsive to requests you submitted in previous months,” said a Cabinet representative in response to an Open Records request submitted in August.
Kentucky Today previously reported that no abortions were reported to the state from January through May. The Cabinet now reports 12.
January
One abortion was performed during the first month of the year. The clinic that performed the procedure estimated the fetus was 7-weeks’ gestation at the time of the abortion.
February
Two abortions were performed in February. The first was induced by Cytotec, known generically as misoprostol, at 17-weeks’ gestation. The second was reported as a salpingectomy—where a surgeon removes one or both of a woman’s fallopian tubes—at 4-weeks’ gestation. The procedure can be used to treat an ectopic pregnancy, among other conditions such as cancer, infection and endometriosis located in the fallopian tubes.
March
Three abortions were performed in March. Two were performed in the first trimester and were drug-induced; one reported the use of methotrexate, a medication used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and some types of cancer.
The third was a surgical abortion performed on a fetus at 19-weeks’ gestation.
April & May
Six abortions were performed in April. Both second-trimester abortions—performed at 18- and 16-weeks’ gestation—were drug-induced, utilizing misoprostol.
The four first-trimester abortions were reportedly performed using different procedures. There were two surgical abortions: one suction curettage and one dilation and evacuation. Both dismember the fetus for removal from the uterus. One pregnancy termination was drug-induced and the fourth did not list an abortion procedure.
The Cabinet did not issue updated records for May, indicating their previous response to Kentucky Today—”the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services determined that it possesses no records responsive to your request”—remains accurate.
June & July
The updated records accompanied an initial response for Kentucky Today’s Open Records requests for June and July.
In June, there was another salpingectomy performed at 4-weeks’ gestation. The second abortion was a suction curettage procedure performed at 7-weeks’ gestation.
There are currently no records for July. To comply with Kentucky law, the attending physician or the person in charge of the institution where the abortion was performed are required to file a report with the Cabinet’s Vital Statistics Branch within three days after the end of the month in which the abortion occurred.
“The Cabinet does not have any data from July 2024,” a Cabinet representative said on Aug. 20.
Abortions are permitted in Kentucky to protect the life and physical health of the mother. 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.
All data related to abortions provided in Kentucky are made available to the public through the Open Records Act.
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