Idaho Bans Out-of-State Abortions for Minors Without Parent’s Consent

Idaho on Wednesday became the first state to make it illegal for minors to leave the state to get an abortion without parental consent.

The new law, signed by Gov. Brad Little, would create a crime called “abortion trafficking,” carrying a penalty of two to five years in jail for anyone who helps a person under 18 get an abortion or obtain abortion pills without permission from a parent or guardian.

The law allows the filing of lawsuits against doctors who perform such abortions, even if the doctors live outside the state. And if local prosecutors refuse to enforce the new law, the Idaho attorney general will have “sole discretion” to do so.

As one of 13 states that now ban most abortions, Idaho already imposes abortion regulations that are among the strictest in the country. The state bans most abortions, with narrow exceptions to preserve the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest. It also allows family members to sue abortion providers in civil court.

Abortion is legal in some neighboring states, including Washington and Oregon.

Idaho’s Supreme Court also ruled in January that the State Constitution does not include a right to the procedure.

Still, sponsors of the new law, which sailed through the Legislature, praised the additional measures as crucial to protect children and parental rights.

Critics of the new law said it overstepped state authority by punishing out-of-state travel.

In a letter Wednesday formalizing the law’s enactment, Governor Little, a Republican, hailed the rights of states to set abortion policy after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the nationally established right to abortion.

He also took issue with characterizations that the law would “criminalize, preclude or otherwise impair interstate travel.” Instead, he wrote, the bill “seeks only to prevent unemancipated minor girls from being taken across state lines for an abortion without the knowledge and consent of her parent or guardian.”

The law is scheduled to take effect in 30 days.

Mistie DelliCarpini-Tolman, the Idaho state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, called the measure “despicable.”

“This law should serve as a warning to everyone living in states with lawmakers that are hostile to this critical health care procedure: This could be coming to your state, too,” she said.

Among those who helped draft the new law was Megan Wold, a lobbyist for Right to Life Idaho and a former law clerk to Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ms. Wold introduced the bill in a House committee, saying that pregnant girls were vulnerable to men who wanted to arrange a “secret abortion.”

Abortion rights advocates are expected to challenge the law in court. Some have noted that Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who concurred with the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs, suggested that a state could not block people from traveling outside their home states to obtain an abortion “based on their constitutional right to interstate travel.”

A bill in Washington that would provide protection from subpoenas or court orders for those who travel to Washington from other states for abortion care has passed the State House and is now in a Senate committee.

Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, a Democrat, sent Mr. Little a letter on Tuesday, urging him not to sign a bill with “harmful impacts.” He added, “We will protect our providers, and we will harbor and comfort your residents who seek health care services that are denied to them in Idaho.”

Some Idaho doctors have expressed concerns as well. Last month, a hospital in northern Idaho, citing the political climate, announced that it would no longer provide labor and delivery services because doctors were departing.

“The Idaho Legislature continues to introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care,” the hospital said in a statement.