Matsumoto v. Labrador Our challenge to the nation's first abortion travel ban

Current Status

On March 7, 2025, a federal court modified the order temporarily blocking Idaho’s abortion travel ban. Under the current order, our clients can still provide information, encouragement, financial resources, and practical support to youth seeking abortion care.

Jump to Legal Documents

Contact

Legal Voice Communications
media@legalvoice.org

Background

In 2023, Idaho became the first state to pass an “abortion trafficking” law. We call it an “abortion travel ban” because its main goal is to prevent minors from getting abortions in other states. The law tries to stop a trusted adult from helping a minor in any way — from telling the young adult about legal abortion care to driving them — if the adult “intends” to conceal their assistance. Violators would face two to five years of prison time.

Idaho’s law ignores a devastating reality: for many youths, turning to a parent is not safe. Some risk violence at home. Others may seek care because they were abused by a parent. For these youths, help from a trusted adult isn’t optional — it’s lifesaving.

Ultimately, young adults are in the best position to decide who to involve in their health care. If allowed to take effect, the abortion travel ban would delay or block that care.

Our Argument

Idaho’s abortion travel ban is unlawful for three reasons:

1. It undermines the First Amendment.

Laws can’t block people from exercising their First Amendment rights if they intend to engage in legal conduct. That means Idahoans have the right to talk about, fund, and provide support for legal abortions in other states.

2. It’s unconstitutionally vague.

Idaho’s law doesn’t define the actions it punishes. For example, the law doesn’t explain what it means for an adult to “recruit” or “harbor” a minor. This vagueness makes it impossible to know how to follow the law or enforce it.

3. It violates the right to travel.

The right to travel between states is one of our oldest rights. It was protected by the Articles of Confederation, and it’s a basic right under the Constitution. Idaho’s law undermines that right by blocking people from traveling to get legal abortions.

Plaintiffs

Lourdes Matsumoto

Lourdes is a third-generation Idahoan and attorney. She often represents victims of domestic and sexual violence, including minors. She would like to discuss abortion options with minors and help them get abortions in states where abortion is legal.

Northwest Abortion Access Fund (NWAAF)

NWAAF is the only independent abortion fund serving Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska. In its work to help people access abortion health care, it helps transport pregnant people across state lines.

Indigenous Idaho Alliance (IIA)

IIA is a non-profit serving the five tribes whose traditional, usual, and accustomed lands encompass territory within (and beyond) Idaho. IIA’s work includes helping pregnant people, including minors in Idaho, access abortion health care.

Defendant

Raúl Labrador
Attorney General of Idaho

It’s customary for a state attorney general to be a defendant if they intend to enforce a law challenged by a lawsuit. Idaho’s attorney general has the sole authority to enforce the Abortion Travel Ban if a state prosecutor refuses to do so.

Co-Counsel

Stoel Rives

Stoel Rives is a corporate and litigation law firm that works in Alaska, California, Idaho, Minnesota, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Washington, D.C. The firm’s dedication to pro bono work has made them a great ally in our work.

The Lawyering Project

The Lawyering Project works to improve abortion access and uphold the rights and dignity of people seeking and providing reproductive health care.

“Abortion care is a fundamental part of reproductive health care. The legislature and our governor continue to put up barriers that prevent pregnant people in Idaho from accessing the care they need. People come to me for advice at a moment in their lives when choices and options can be a matter of life or death. I need the legislature to produce laws that honor the liberty of all Idahoans, and that are written in clear and unambiguous terms.”

— Lourdes Matsumoto, Individual Plaintiff

“Idaho’s law is the first time a state has tried to criminalize the right to travel for health care. It is unconstitutional to forbid citizens from traveling because you disapprove of the reasons they are driving to another state. Idahoans, like all people, should be free to travel between states without the specter of prison. Even if they are traveling for a reason other people disagree with. If this stands, what is next?”

— Wendy Heipt, Legal Voice Senior Reproductive Health and Justice Counsel

“Many minors do not have supportive or safe parents or guardians in their lives who they can ask to help them get an abortion. It’s remarkable that lawmakers believe that young Idahoans don’t have the capacity to make reproductive healthcare choices for themselves or deserve bodily autonomy but believe that those same young people should have the capacity to raise and care for children on their own, without any major social or economic support.”

— Northwest Abortion Access Fund

“This lawsuit is not about the right to an abortion. It is about much more. Namely, long-standing and well recognized fundamental rights of freedom of speech, expression, due process, and parental rights.”

— Honorable United States Magistrate Judge Debora K. Grasham, granting plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction

“Our work at the Indigenous Idaho Alliance is to interrupt systems and policies that inhibit the sovereign rights of Indigenous people in Idaho and across the region. This means taking a stand for the right to access medical care when, for so many centuries of settler-colonization, we have been denied the ability to move across our usual and accustomed territory for any reason. Interrupting the access to healthcare for our Indigenous women is especially egregious because of our cultural and social practices as a matriarchy. Women are to be revered and honored, not infringed upon or dehumanized.”

— tai simpson, Indigenous Idaho Alliance