Idaho can fully enforce abortion ban, federal court rules

Most abortions are illegal throughout pregnancy in Idaho, with a trigger ban starting at conception and civil liability law starting at six weeks. Exceptions are permitted for rape, incest, or when allegedly “necessary” to save a mother’s life. In January 2023, the Idaho Supreme Court upheld the bans and ruled that the Idaho Constitution does not contain a “right” to abortion.

Last month, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled in favor of a 2024 suit brought by Boise physician Stacy Seyb, declaring a “narrow but fundamental right to abortion when a pregnancy threatens the woman’s life or health.” Idaho’s law makes exceptions to “prevent the death of the pregnant woman” but not for “health,” a standard that abortionists are notorious for abusing by defining health so broadly as to include nearly any consideration.

Idaho Republican Attorney General Raúl Labrador subsequently announced that he filed a notice of appeal with the Ninth Circuit, plus an emergency motion demanding that the state be allowed to enforce the law in full while the case proceeds. 

In response, Winmill narrowed the ruling so that it only applies to the specific party to the dispute, meaning that Seyb was free to commit abortions as long as he devised a “physical or mental health” justification, but no other Idaho abortionist could.

On Thursday, however, the Ninth Circuit ordered a full stay of Winmill’s original injunction, the Spokesman-Review reports, allowing the law to be enforced in its entirety. Oral arguments on the merits of the case are slated for September 22.

“Idaho can enforce the law again while this case is heard, which means unborn children and their mothers in our state are protected under Idaho law and doctors can continue making the good-faith judgments the law has always allowed,” responded Labrador. “The Supreme Court settled in Dobbs that this decision belongs to the people of Idaho and their elected representatives. We will continue to defend it as far as needed.”

Whatever the outcome, pro-abortion activists in the Gem State are circulating a ballot initiative to enact a new statute, the “Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act” (RFPA), that would codify a “right to reproductive freedom and privacy, which is the right to make personal decisions about reproductive health care that directly impact the person’s own body,” expressly including abortion.

The initiative, which will appear on the ballot this fall, will only require a majority vote to be ratified. “Pro-life groups have fundraised over $1.6 million for the fight, and several groups are already pounding the pavement; the abortion activists behind Proposition 1 are close behind with $1.1 million raised thus far, including donations from actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest,” LifeSite’s Jonathon Van Maren wrote.

Thirteen states ban most abortions starting at conception; another five ban it at around six weeks, with additional states imposing a range of later restrictions. 

But the abortion lobby works feverishly to preserve abortion “access” via deregulated interstate distribution of abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors, and enshrining abortion “rights” in state constitutions, whether via activist lawsuits or state constitutional amendments.