Justices allow new defense of blocked Kentucky abortion law

By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has ruled that Kentucky’s Republican attorney general may continue defending a restriction on abortion rights that had been struck down by lower courts. The underlying issue in the case is a blocked state law that abortion rights supporters say would have effectively banned a standard abortion method in the second trimester of pregnancy. But the justices decided the more technical issue of whether Attorney General Daniel Cameron can intervene in the case after rulings from a trial court and appellate panel, as well as Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s decision to drop the case. The court, by an 8-1 vote Thursday, concluded that Cameron can step in.