Unite Kentucky’s Reproductive Rights & Care Panel
On February 26, 2026, a panel of frontline advocates, a faith leader, and a medical professional sat down together at Louisville’s Bon Air library to examine how the Dobbs ruling affects women’s health across the Commonwealth.
Speakers & Key Messages
Tamarra Wieder is the KY State Director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates- Kentucky and an experienced public affairs leader with over 10 years of strategic management in reproductive health, advocacy, and policy. In her role, she leads the state’s community outreach, public advocacy, and grassroots campaigns. She pointed out that despite Kentuckians voting to protect abortion access, the legislature continues to introduce bills that criminalize women’s reproductive health, saying, “The legislature has been a block in so many ways, even to common-sense legislation to make healthcare more accessible. In Kentucky, we can’t even get menstrual hygiene products into schools for students who need them. That should give you a sense of just how hostile the environment is for something like abortion access.”
Rev. Amy Armstrong began her ministry as pastor at Jeff Street in 2025 and has been an active member of the Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. She and her family moved to Louisville from Durham, NC. As a religious leader, she harkened back to the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And once our legislature starts to insert itself into medical decisions, it is a slippery slope that actively impacts everyone. We already see the lack of doctors, the fear of doctors not being able to do what they are trained to do…and I feel like there's a lot of links with overall human rights when you start talking about abortion care.”
Ona Marshall, MBA, MA, ARRT Nuclear Medicine, ARDMS, Ultrasound, is the co-founder of Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Fund. Her work in reproductive rights includes co-owning EMW Women’s Surgical Center, which provided abortion care, served as a physician training site, and acted as the plaintiff in legal challenges to Kentucky’s restrictive abortion laws - including the post-Roe case at the Kentucky Supreme Court. She emphasized the unexpected ways Kentucky’s abortion ban impacts its citizens, saying, “...it’s driving doctors out of the state, which limits healthcare for all of us. It is a situation where Kentucky medical students - and we have that data now that 73.3% don’t want to do their residency in states with abortion bans. And that’s just going to continue to significantly change the access that all of us have to care in this state in so many ways.”
Sarah McClure, MS, RN, CNL, focuses on high-risk obstetrics, labor and delivery, public health nursing, and nursing leadership. She is completing her PhD with a research focus on social determinants of health and maternal-child health. She offered a medical provider’s perspective on Kentucky’s ban, highlighting its risk to patients and strain on providers, “It's going to make maternal health outcomes worse…we've seen that with the patient in Texas who had sepsis, and if you have to wait until they're sick enough…Now we have to bring that patient back from the brink of septic shock.”
Why Bans are Problematic: Abortion is the Standard of Care for Most Pregnancy Complications
Many people do not realize that abortion is the only measure of care that can save a woman’s life in the case of most pregnancy complications. Lack of access to abortion in these cases can lead to infertility, other lifelong health issues, and even death. While abortion bans often have exceptions for the life of the mother that one would assume cover these complications, in reality, exceptions are designed to be difficult, if not impossible, to access. As a result, a national Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 68%of OB-GYNs believe the Dobbs ruling has worsened their ability to manage pregnancy-related emergencies.
The Unintended Consequence of the Abortion Ban - Exacerbating an Already Acute Doctor Shortage
When the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating federal protections for abortion care, it triggered abortion bans and additional legislation regulating reproductive health in states across the country, including Kentucky. Abortion restrictions interfere with evidence-based and patient-centered care, with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) stating that they “are not based on science or medicine; they allow unrelated third parties to make decisions that rightfully and ethically should be made only by individuals and their physicians.”
These laws have had far-reaching consequences, as Ona Marshall points out, “Abortion bans have fundamentally changed the way healthcare providers can act, and their medical judgment has been replaced with fear. They can’t provide the standard of care that they’re ethically bound to provide to people, and it’s morally distressing to them.”
The result has been that Kentucky is losing medical providers at an alarming rate - the Cicero Institute projects the state will be short roughly 2,926 physicians by 2030. Meanwhile, more than half of Kentucky’s 120 counties had no dedicated OBGYN physician in 2021, and the primary care shortfall affecting 94% of Kentucky counties. The Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Fund has compiled ample evidence that the abortion ban is a key driver of this shortage. A recent national survey of nearly 500 third- and fourth-year medical students further reinforced this, with nearly 60% of students reporting that they were unlikely to apply for residency training in a state with abortion restrictions.
The Chilling Effect of Kentucky’s Legal Landscape
Kentucky’s post-Roe abortion ban was not the only restriction on women’s health in the Commonwealth; the legislature has passed 22 different bills regulating reproductive health. These laws invade privacy and make pregnancy unsafe in Kentucky, not only for those who have complications, but also for those who miscarry or terminate their pregnancy.
One example of these came in 2022, when, without ample review or discussion, the legislature passed HB 3, an omnibus abortion law that, among other regulations, has very strict regulations around the handling and disposal of fetal remains. Unbeknownst to many Kentuckians, state law requires fetal tissue from a miscarriage or abortion to be cremated or buried. This creates a situation where a person who has miscarried faces confusing legal rules and potential legal consequences, while in the midst of an already traumatic and grief-stricken experience. As Rev. Armstrong noted, “At a time when someone needs whole body care, you’re risking criminal charges. [In the face of needing] physical, emotional, and psychological care to face the threat of criminalization. And how does that help anything? How does the threat of incarceration or criminal records or extensive fines on people who don’t have the resources in the first place…how does that help society in the least?”
Sarah McClure added, “I just think how cruel, because you don’t know that person’s story, and miscarriages happen. Now that person is grieving, and you’re going to slap them with a charge…and it’s going to keep people from seeking care or encourage them to delay care, which leads to worse health outcomes.”
The Commonwealth has been aggressive, particularly in recent months, in criminalizing pregnancy - prosecuting women for their disposal of fetal remains and even unsuccessfully attempting to charge women with homicide. The legislature is also quick to fix issues legislatively that they cannot successfully prosecute, introducing HB 714 in late February to make abortion a criminal homicide. In the face of this recent news, Tamarra Wieder cautioned, “We’ve had three pregnancy-related arrests in the last six months, that we know about. And that’s the sad thing - a lot of pregnancy criminalization happens in the shadows….and we know that across the country, that pregnancy criminalization impacts women of color at a disproportionate rate, and it has been on the rise, especially since Roe fell.”
Ultimately, laws making pregnancy outcomes a criminal matter have a chilling effect on both patients and providers. Patients become unsure of whether they can trust their providers not to report them, while providers cannot provide quality care to their patients. These laws undermine trust at the foundation of the patient-provider relationship and go against medical best practices.
Improving Public Health in the Commonwealth
Tamarra Wieder, Ona Marshall, Rev. Amy Armstrong, and Sarah McClure shared different perspectives on how restrictions on reproductive healthcare in Kentucky jeopardize the Commonwealth’s broader health outcomes. A healthier Kentucky cannot be achieved without ensuring access to reproductive healthcare.
There are many ways to get involved and improve healthcare in the state. You can anonymously share your story with Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Fund, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates - Kentucky, or Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, which is a powerful way to raise awareness. Donating to or volunteering with these organizations also helps build a healthier Commonwealth. Staying informed by following these local organizations alongside public health experts like the World Health Organization and Kaiser Family Foundation can help you counter the increasing stream of reproductive health disinformation online and on social media.