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Background

Idaho’s Abortion Bans 

Idaho has two abortion bans: a ban throughout pregnancy and a ban beginning at six weeks of pregnancy. 

These strict bans offer some exceptions for medical emergencies, rape, and incest. However, these exceptions are largely meaningless. They’re narrow, vague, or have unworkable requirements. As a result, it’s difficult to know how to follow the law or enforce it. 

In truth, all exceptions are based on a false premise: that there are “good” and “bad” reasons to seek an abortion. Everyone deserves access to abortion health care without judgment or stigma, regardless of their reason for getting care. The ability to make decisions about pregnancy and parenthood is vital to a person’s dignity, equality, self-determination, and religious liberty.

Our Case 

Our lawsuit challenges one aspect of Idaho’s abortion bans: their limited exceptions for medical emergencies. 

Right now, becoming pregnant in Idaho means gambling with your health and life. There are many medical conditions that may require an abortion, but there’s no guarantee that care is available. 

You might have an underlying health condition that worsens. You might have challenges with mental illness. You might need cancer treatment. You might need an organ transplant. You might learn that your fetus has no chance of surviving after birth.

To get the abortion health care you need, you may be forced to travel hundreds of miles away from home. That trip will likely incur high logistical, financial, familial, and emotional costs. If you can’t afford those costs, then you may go without care altogether. 

In addition to harming pregnant people, Idaho’s bans hurt health care providers and the public at large. Because health care providers can’t be sure if they’re complying with the law, they’re afraid to provide any kind of abortion health care. And since they can’t serve their patients, many are fleeing the state. Idaho has lost half of its maternal-fetal medicine specialists and more than 50 OB-GYNs since its bans have gone into effect. Three Idaho hospitals have stopped providing labor and delivery services entirely. 

Our Argument

Idaho’s abortion bans violate two aspects of the Constitution: the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause. 

The Due Process Clause protects the right to seek treatment for serious medical needs without undue governmental interference. Idaho’s abortion bans violate this right by imposing undue burdens on health care providers and pregnant people. 

Because of the bans, a doctor must wait until a patient’s life is at risk before offering abortion health care. However, there is often no clear moment when a patient’s condition becomes life-threatening. As a result, doctors are faced with an impossible decision. They can wait until their patient is at death’s door, but by then it may be too late to help. They can choose to act before death is imminent, but they may risk a felony conviction. 

The Equal Protection Clause prevents states from taking discriminatory action. Idaho’s bans violate this clause by treating pregnant people with serious mental health needs differently than pregnant people with other serious medical needs. This undervaluing of mental health has no legal justification. 

Partner

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.