Idaho Supreme Court Upholds Abortion Bans

Idaho has three separate bans: one that allows family members of the aborted fetus to sue abortion providers in civil court, another that prohibits abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, and a third that bans all abortions from conception, with exceptions for rape, incest or a medical threat to the life of the mother.

The strictest of the three laws has been partially in effect since late August. A lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department has blocked a part of that law that allows doctors and abortion providers to be sued and convicted in criminal court. That case is still pending.

Under that law, providers who are convicted face up to five years in prison, and could have their medical license suspended for at least six months. It allows doctors to cite rape, incest or an effort to save the life of a pregnant woman as a defense in a trial. But the woman must provide a police report in cases of rape or incest.

Right to Life of Idaho, which believes abortion is murder, praised the court’s decision. The justices “upheld pro-life laws that were passed by the representatives of the people.”

Rebecca Gibron, chief executive of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, said it was “a dark day for the state of Idaho,” but added that “our fight is far from over.”

Mary Ziegler, a law professor at University of California, Davis, said the rulings in Idaho and South Carolina underscore the importance of state supreme courts, particularly in states like Idaho that hold judicial elections.

Idaho’s five justices are elected in nonpartisan elections, or, in the case of a midterm vacancy, appointed by the governor. Four of the five current justices in Idaho, a deeply Republican state that voted to re-elect Donald Trump for president in 2020, were appointed by a Republican governor.