U.S. District Judge Greg Stivers temporarily halted the shutdown of EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville, ordering the state to allow the clinic to continue operating.
Stivers wrote that the plaintiffs have a “strong likelihood of success” in their suit against the state. EMW was scheduled to be shut down Monday after the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services claimed the clinic’s agreements with a local hospital and ambulance service were deficient. The plaintiffs argue that the clinic’s agreements are in order and that they should have been given a hearing about the revocation of its license. They also said that the state’s actions were in retaliation to EMW’s challenge to the state’s new ultrasound abortion requirement, which is also pending in federal court.