Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration has filed a lawsuit against a second Kentucky abortion provider, alleging the facility provided abortions without a license.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday against Eubanks & Marshall of Lexington, PSC,which does business as EMW Women’s Clinic. It alleges the clinic wasn’t properly licensed, and didn’t have proper transfer agreements in place with a hospital and ambulance service. The Cabinet for Health and Family Services filed the lawsuit.
“Last month it was brought to our attention that EMW in Lexington is operating without a license,” said CHFS Secretary Vickie Yates Glisson in a press release. “Our inspectors visited the location and confirmed that EMW is unlicensed and does not have the required ambulance transfer agreement in place to protect women in the case of emergency. Furthermore, the inspector found the facility in an unsanitary condition. Regrettably, the location had not been inspected since 2006. There are laws in place to protect our citizens, and we will ensure the laws are upheld.”
This is the second lawsuit the Bevin administration has filed against abortion providers since the governor took office in December. The first was filed last month against Planned Parenthood in Louisville, which had just begun providing abortions weeks before. Bevin has also championed several bills in the General Assembly that address abortion — he signed one into law that requires a meeting with a doctor at least 24 hours before an abortion. Another requiring a sonogram before an abortion has passed the state Senate.
There is only one other location in Kentucky to obtain an abortion: the EMW Clinic in Louisville.
Calls to the EMW Clinic in Lexington on Thursday morning were not answered.