Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron: There is No Right to Abortion
October 26, 2022 | Kentucky
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade affirms what we all have known—that the U.S. Constitution says nothing about the right to an abortion and that abortion policy must be left to the states. As lawmakers across the country undertake the hard work of legislating in this area, it is inevitable that legal challenges to pro-life laws will arise. That is currently happening in Kentucky. But my office is opposing any judicial action that would create a Kentucky version of Roe.
As a starting point, there is no right to an abortion in the Commonwealth’s constitution. When courts interpret that document, they look to the express language. Since its ratification in 1891, Kentucky’s constitution has never contained the word “abortion” or any reference to protecting abortion. And courts may neither add to nor take from the express words and plain meaning of that document.
If the framers of the Commonwealth’s constitution wanted to protect abortion, they would have said so. They did not. Instead, the debates at Kentucky’s constitutional convention refer to “abortion” on just two substantive occasions. The first reference notes that abortion violated the common law of Kentucky, and the second reference notes that abortion violated the laws of Indiana…. (Excerpt from LIFEMEWS.COM)