Author

Deborah Yetter

Deborah Yetter

Deborah Yetter is an independent journalist who previously worked for 38 years for The Courier Journal, where she focused on child welfare and health and human services. She lives in Louisville and has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Louisville. She is a member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.

Politics, pay and too few dentists: Barriers to healing the pain in Kentuckians’ mouths

By: - July 10, 2023

At the Red Bird Mission dental clinic in Southeastern Kentucky, patients with few or no teeth now are eligible for dentures through an expansion of the state’s Medicaid dental services for adults. “People are tickled to death,” said Dr. Bill Collins, the dentist at the United Methodist Church mission in a remote corner of Clay […]

Challenge to Kentucky’s abortion ban dismissed as advocates seek a patient to press case

By: - June 27, 2023

LOUISVILLE — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of two Kentucky laws that together ban nearly all abortions, a week after the state’s two licensed abortion providers signaled they planned to drop the case — for now. Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry on Tuesday signed an order the parties submitted agreeing to […]

Kentucky abortion providers want to dismiss challenge against near-total abortion ban

By: - June 20, 2023

In a surprise move, Kentucky’s two licensed abortion providers have asked a judge to dismiss their case seeking to overturn the state’s near-total ban on abortion. The joint motion on behalf of Planned Parenthood and EMW Women’s Surgical Center comes on the eve of the first anniversary of the June 24, 2022, U.S. Supreme Court […]

How much partisan gerrymandering does Kentucky’s Constitution allow?

By: - June 20, 2023

A fight over Kentucky’s state House and U.S. congressional districts is now before the state Supreme Court, more than a year after new maps were adopted by the Republican supermajority that controls the General Assembly. On March 23, the high court agreed to take the challenge by state Democrats, bypassing the state Appeals Court, “in […]

Abortion provider selling its downtown Louisville building

By: - June 1, 2023

After more than four decades of providing abortion and contraceptive services, EMW Women’s Surgical Center is selling its downtown Louisville building. The move by EMW comes nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down abortion as a federal constitutional right and it became virtually illegal in Kentucky under existing state laws. At the […]

Jewish women cite Kentucky’s Religious Freedom law in contesting state abortion ban

By: - May 12, 2023

LOUISVILLE — Enacted in 2013, Kentucky’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” has been used to champion conservative causes ranging from tax incentives for a Noah’s Ark theme park in Grant County to the right of churches to stay open during the pandemic shutdown. Now, three Jewish women from Louisville argue that same law protects their reproductive […]

Patients still call Kentucky abortion providers as advocates struggle to find a legal path forward

By: - April 26, 2023

LOUISVILLE —With Kentucky’s abortion ban now in its 10th month, advocates have returned to court to argue that abortion is a right under the state constitution after the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck it down as a federal constitutional right. But a February ruling by the Kentucky Supreme Court curtailed the ability of abortion […]

Kentucky official upholds child-neglect ruling in near-fatal injury by Louisville teacher’s aide

By: - March 30, 2023

Almost nine years after a 16-year-old boy with autism suffered two fractured legs — a near fatal injury — at the hands of a teacher’s aide with Jefferson County Public Schools, the state’s top human services official has upheld a finding of child neglect in the case. In a March 16 written order, Eric Friedlander, […]