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Bevin Administration Again Denies Louisville Planned Parenthood Clinic Abortion License

Exterior of Planned Parenthood's Louisville health center.
Planned Parenthood's Kentucky centers remain open, providing care including wellness visits, birth control, emergency contraception and gender confirming hormone therapy. Planned Parenthood and EMW Women's Surgical Center are also helping patients connect with access to abortions in other states.

Governor Matt Bevin’s administration has again denied the downtown Louisville Planned Parenthood clinic’s application to provide abortions. It will be four years in January since the administration first ordered the clinic to stop abortions.

In a letter sent to Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky on Friday, Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Adam Meier said the clinic never had a license to provide abortions.

However, the history is a little more complicated. In late 2015,shortly before Governor Steve Beshear left office, his administration gave the clinic the green light to perform abortions — despite not yet having a license. The Beshear administration said the facility needed to be operating for the state to conduct an inspection.

But that inspection never happened and a license wasn’t issued before Gov. Bevin took office. His state inspector general ordered the clinic to stop the abortions. Since then, the state and Planned Parenthood have been in court over the licensing issue.

Chris Charbonneau, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, wrote in a press release that Bevin is on the wrong side of history.

“We will continue to fight this decision and the slew of unpopular decisions that take away reproductive health care and abortion access in the Commonwealth,” Charbonneau said. “This decision shows the true motive, which is to purposefully place undue burdens on pregnant Kentuckians.”

According to the state, 23 people received abortions at the Louisville Planned Parenthood clinic in the small window between Gov. Beshear's administration giving the facility the green light and Gov. Bevin taking office.

Currently, there is only one legal abortion provider in Kentucky: the EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville.

Lisa Gillespie is WFPL's Health and Innovation Reporter.