wfn.org | Stated Clerk Files Amicus Brief in Kentucky Case

[PCUSA_NEWS@ecunet.org]

16 May 1996 
 
 
96181  Stated Clerk Files Amicus Brief in Kentucky Case on 
                  Medicaid Funding for Abortions 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Stated Clerk the Rev. James E. Andrews has joined in an 
amicus brief in Kentucky, supporting two women who are challenging state 
laws that prohibit the use of Medicaid funds for abortion in medically 
necessary cases.  The brief also challenged the ban on the performance of 
such abortions in Kentucky public hospitals. 
 
     Both women in the case faced serious health hazards if they continued 
their pregnancies.  One woman was recovering from a recent kidney 
transplant and her doctor had advised her against continuing her pregnancy. 
The other woman was carrying an anencephalic fetus with no hope of 
survival. 
 
     The Commonwealth of Kentucky's Medicaid program denied the use of 
Medicaid funds or the use of a public hospital for either abortion. 
 
     Andrews' brief cited the 1992 General Assembly's position that "no law 
or administrative decision should limit or prohibit public funding for 
necessary abortions for the socially and economically disadvantaged."  It 
also noted, however, the denomination's position that abortion should not 
be used as birth control. 

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