A federal judge has struck down a new Kentucky law requiring a doctor to perform an ultrasound and show and describe the image of the fetus to the patient before providing an abortion.

U.S. District Judge David Hale ruled Wednesday that such a law, which also requires the physician to play an audible heartbeat of the fetus to the patient, violates a physician's right to free speech.

While supporters of the measure known as House Bill 2 argued the law was meant to better inform women seeking abortions, Hale found otherwise.

"HB 2 is intended to dissuade women from choosing abortion by forcing ultrasound images, detailed descriptions of the fetus and the sounds of the fetal heartbeat on them, against their will, at a time when they are most vulnerable," Hale wrote in a 30-page opinion.

A lawyer for EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville, the state's only abortion clinic, which had challenged the law, said Hale's ruling is an immediate victory for patients.

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"Starting today, women don't have to go through this invasive, demeaning and humiliating experience," said Andrew Beck, with the American Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Freedom Project.

But supporters of the measure promised an appeal to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"We are disappointed in the court's ruling and will appeal immediately to the 6th Circuit," said Amanda Stamper, a spokeswoman for Gov. Matt Bevin, an anti-abortion Republican who signed the bill into law this year. "We are confident the constitutionality of HB 2 will be upheld."

House Speaker Jeff Hoover, a Jamestown Republican and the primary sponsor of the legislation, said that he also is disappointed and hopes the appeals court upholds the ultrasound measure, the first bill passed in the House this year after Republicans captured a majority of the seats in 2016.

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"I respect Judge Hale's decision but I disagree with his conclusion," Hoover said in a statement. "We went to great lengths to craft the bill in a way we felt was constitutionally sound."

But Beck, the ACLU lawyer, said he expects Hale's permanent injunction barring Kentucky from enforcing the ultrasound law will withstand an appeal.

"It's an extremely solid ruling," Beck said.

Hale's order notes that while the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a similar "speech and display ultrasound law" from Texas, a more recent decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "explicitly disagreed" with that finding and struck down a North Carolina ultrasound law similar to Kentucky's.

"Finding the Fourth Circuit's reasoning persuasive, the court concludes that HB 2 violates the First Amendment," Hale said.

Hale said Kentucky's law is "designed to convey the state's ideological, anti-abortion message" and goes "well beyond" basic information a physician should provide to a patient.

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William Sharp, the legal director of the ACLU of Kentucky, called the ruling "a vindication of the rights of Kentucky women and their physicians."

Hale said in his opinion that the law "appears to inflict psychological harm on abortion patients."

"Requiring physicians to force upon their patients the information mandated by HB 2 has more potential to harm the psychological well-being of the patient than to further the legitimate interests of the commonwealth," he said.

The law permits a woman to look away from the image and cover her ears to avoid hearing the physician's description or the fetal heartbeat. But physicians who fail to attempt to show and describe the fetus to the patient could face significant fines of up to $250,000 and action against their medical license, under HB 2.

At a March hearing on the case, lawyer M. Stephen Pitt, representing the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which oversees abortion clinics, said the law was meant to protect women who might regret abortions or may not fully understand the procedure.

It might prompt a woman to reconsider an abortion by thinking "Gosh, there's a living human being inside me. Maybe I don't want to do this," said Pitt, who serves as general counsel to the governor.

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Hale, in his opinion, said that evidence shows it is EMW's practice, as well as the nationwide standard, "to offer women the opportunity" to see an ultrasound, hear its description or hear the fetal heartbeat.

"There is no evidence that physicians in Kentucky were denying women this information prior to the enactment of HB 2," he said.

Dr. Tanya Franklin, a physician at EMW, testified in March that none of her patients had decided against having an abortion since the ultrasound law took effect in January.

State law already requires counseling 24 hours in advance of an abortion and the EMW clinic discusses alternatives, including adoption, and tries to make sure no one is pressuring the patient to get an abortion, Franklin said.

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She said the law has been very upsetting for her patients, some of whom have been victims of sexual assault and others who have a severely deformed fetus and already have undergone extensive testing and ultrasounds before deciding to terminate the pregnancy.

"Some of them are crying, some of them are sobbing, some of them are defeated and desperate," Franklin testified before Hale in March.

The ultrasound law is one of two abortion bills the legislature passed during its first week this year after Republicans took control of the House, giving the GOP control of both the House and Senate and a chance to pass abortion restriction measures long sought by the party.

A second measure, also signed into law by Bevin, bans abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. An attorney with the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project said Thursday they have no plans to challenge that law but are continuing to monitor the situation.

Meanwhile, another significant abortion case is pending before U.S. District Judge Greg Stivers which, if the state is successful, could force EMW to close and leave Kentucky as the only state with no abortion facility.

The Bevin administration earlier this year sought to revoke the license of EMW, claiming it lacks appropriate agreements with a hospital and ambulance service in the event of a patient emergency.

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It also has denied a license to Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky to provide abortions in Louisville, saying the organization has failed to obtain such agreements required by state law.

Both EMW and Planned Parenthood challenged the Bevin administration in federal court, arguing the agreements are unnecessary and that the administration has used them as an unconstitutional means to try to block access to abortion in Kentucky.

The judge is expected to rule on the case later this year.

Reach reporter Darcy Costello at dcostello@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4834 and Deborah Yetter at dyetter@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4228.