Kentucky's last independent abortion business has been demolished

The building that was home to Kentucky's last independent abortion business has been demolished, more than a year after its imminent destruction was announced.

Key Takeaways:

• EMW Women's Surgical Center was the main abortion business in Louisville, Kentucky, until it shut down in 2022.

• A real estate development company bought the building in 2023, with plans to build a hotel on the site.

• The building has since been demolished.

• EMW was known to be embroiled in several controversies, including covering up child rape and coaching an undercover investigator on how to bypass Kentucky's parental consent laws.

The Details:

In February 2025, Live Action News reported that the building that housed the abortion facility would be destroyed. EMW Women's Surgical Center had been the main abortion business in Louisville, Kentucky, for years before shutting down in 2022 when the state passed a law protecting most preborn children from abortion.

The building was purchased in 2023 by Zyyo, a real estate development company, which plans to build a $175 million 27-story hotel on the property. In the meantime, it will act as a parking lot until construction begins later in 2026. Zyyo has also purchased some of the neighboring properties.

“The demolition of the EMW abortion facility is an answer to decades of prayer and a testament to God’s faithfulness," said Matthew Harper, executive director of the pro-life organization Speak For the Unborn.

"I'm overjoyed to have lived to see it with my own eyes. God does really answer prayer. 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."

Zoom Out:

EMW was opened by four abortionists in 1981, and those who worked there over the years were often members of the University of Louisville's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The facility committed abortions through 21 weeks, six days, an age at which premature babies have been known to survive. It claimed to have committed 100,000 abortions, according to Baptist Press, about a third of all of the abortions committed in the state from 1973 to 2022 (297,052).

EMW was not without controversy in its years of operation. It was part of an undercover investigation in which a staff member offered information to the undercover reporter on how to bypass Kentucky's abortion parental consent law. During that investigation, staff also failed to notify law enforcement of the presumably underage girl's statutory rape by a 31-year-old.

In 2019, an elderly pro-life advocate was assaulted outside of EMW when she was handing a woman a card for a local pregnancy center. She suffered a broken femur, among other injuries.

The Bottom Line:

Though EMW is gone from Kentucky, the pro-abortion efforts linger. Dr. Ernest Marshall, one of the founders of EMW, has launched the Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Fund (KYRFF) to increase access to abortion through policies and the recruitment of doctors to advocate for abortion.