LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The building that housed EMW Women’s Surgical Center, Kentucky’s last independent abortion clinic, has been demolished.
The site in downtown Louisville was razed to clear the way for construction of a 27-story hotel project. It will serve as a temporary 66-space parking lot until work begins later this year.
EMW Women’s Surgical Center permanently ceased operating at its 136 West Market Street clinic and stopped performing abortions in 2022 following the enforcement of Kentucky’s abortion ban after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The center’s building was listed for sale in May of 2023 and purchased alongside other buildings on the city block by real estate development company Zyyo in November 2024.
Four doctors, including Dr. Ernest Marshall and the late Dr. Samuel Eubanks, opened the abortion clinic in 1981.
EMW’s physicians – many of whom were professors in University of Louisville’s department of obstetrics and gynecology – aborted babies between 6 weeks and 21 weeks, six days’ gestation, using both medication and surgical procedures.
Before updating its website, EMW claimed up through December 2025 to have provided more than 100,000 abortions.
The Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) started publishing abortion reports in 2017. Between that year and its closure in 2022, EMW reported 19,640 abortions at its facility – accounting for roughly 92 percent of all pregnancy terminations recorded in Kentucky. The clinic’s highest recorded yearly total was in 2021, reporting 3,802 abortions.
The sum of lives lost between 1981 and 2017 at EMW is not known; that data was not collected by Kentucky’s health department.
There were 297,052 abortions reported to the Centers for Disease Control, and the CHFS, in Kentucky between 1973, when the Supreme Court created a right to abortion by issuing its Roe v. Wade ruling, and 2022 when both EMW and Planned Parenthood in Louisville stopped providing abortions.
‘Overjoyed to have lived to see it’
Matthew Harper participated in a sidewalk counseling ministry with Speak For the Unborn (S4U) outside EMW during his time at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, providing resources to women seeking abortions and encouraging them to choose life.
Now the executive director of S4U, Harper said it was a “joy” to see EMW’s building torn down.
“The demolition of the EMW abortion facility is an answer to decades of prayer and a testament to God’s faithfulness,” he said.
Harper noted that many babies were saved from abortion and many people professed faith in Christ through the work of S4U, and counseling team members prayed for the day the clinic would be torn down.
“I’m overjoyed to have lived to see it with my own eyes. God does really answer prayer,” Harper said. “Now, the work is just beginning. Christians have been faithfully standing in the gap and offering hope and help for many years, but now more than ever, we need more believers who will rise up and help vulnerable families and moms in crisis situations. When God answers prayer, His people are called to respond with compassionate action.”
Shelly Green, executive director of Right to Life of Louisville, said EMW’s demolition is a “significant moment” for the pro-life community.
“For decades, EMW was a site where countless unborn children lost their lives and where many women experienced deep pain and pressure. Its closure and removal from our city landscape symbolize a turning of the page toward a future where women are supported, families are strengthened, and life is protected at every stage. While the building may be gone, our commitment to walking with women and promoting a culture of life remains as strong as ever.”
Though EMW’s physical facility is gone, its work continues through the Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Fund (KYRFF), which was founded by Marshall and his wife, Ona. KYRFF is an advocacy organization dedicated to improving abortion access through education, policy reform and engaging healthcare providers to advocate for abortion.
This article originally appeared in Kentucky Today.
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