High Court Won’t Hear Kentucky Speech-and-Display Abortion Case

A Kentucky law requiring physicians, before an abortion, to display ultrasound images of a fetus to a patient, describe the images according to a state-prescribed script, and make fetal heart sounds audible won’t be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The high court Dec. 9 denied review of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s decision upholding the provision.

The law validly requires physicians to give patients truthful, nonmisleading information that is relevant to a medical procedure, the Sixth Circuit said.

Enforcement of the law was put on hold pending the Supreme Court’s decision.

EMW Women’s Surgical Center PSC, the only licensed abortion clinic in Kentucky, said the law differs from typical informed consent statutes. It “transforms this standard medical practice into a pure speech mandate,” it said.

The American Public Health Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and 137 biomedical ethicists filed briefs supporting EMW’s call for review.

Adam Meier, the secretary of Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services, opposed review.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, O’Melveny & Myers LLP, and the ACLU of Kentucky Foundation Inc. represent EMW. The Cabinet for Health and Family Services’s Office of Legal Services and attorneys from the Kentucky Governor’s Office represent Meier.

The case is EMW Women’s Surgical Ctr. PSC v. Meier, U.S., No. 19-417, denied 12/9/19.