Pregnant woman in Kentucky sues to overturn laws barring her from getting an abortion

A Kentucky woman who is eight weeks pregnant filed a lawsuit Friday challenging the state’s near-total ban on abortion.

The suit alleges that Kentucky’s abortion laws violate the state Constitution and are causing irreparable harm to the plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe, and others like her. It asks the court to permanently block the state from enforcing those laws.

The suit also seeks class-action status to represent all people in Kentucky who are pregnant and want an in-state abortion.

“I am angry that now that I am pregnant and do not want to be, the government is interfering in my private matters and blocking me from having an abortion,” Doe said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “This is my decision — not the government’s or any other person’s.”

The lawsuit comes on the heels of another filed by a pregnant woman who has been unable to obtain an abortion in Texas. On Thursday, a Texas judge granted an emergency order in that case, allowing the woman, whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis, to get an abortion in the state.