As a result of the decision, the ban is scheduled to begin on August 25. The Court issued the ruling based on three lawsuits filed by a Planned Parenthood chapter and a local doctor this year to block three Idaho laws that would have gone into effect if the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which it did in June. The petitioners asked the court not to enforce the abortion restrictions until the lawsuits are settled. The first lawsuit was aimed at stopping a law that would have made abortion a felony, although it allows doctors to plead rape, incest or trying to save a pregnant woman’s life as a defense in a trial. Another lawsuit sought to limit a law that criminalizes abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The chapter had also filed suit against a law that allows relatives of an embryo or fetus to sue an abortion provider and mandates a reward of at least $20,000, plus legal fees, within four years of an abortion. Although other states have banned abortion at conception and instituted stiff penalties for abortion providers, the federal government says Idaho’s law violates federal guidelines for providing health care when a pregnant woman’s health is at risk. The Justice Department took the rare step of filing its own lawsuit against the state in federal court and asked that the law be put on hold. That lawsuit, the first federal lawsuit filed to try to protect abortion rights, is scheduled to go to trial on August 22. The Idaho Supreme Court merged the three state lawsuits into one. The petitioners had originally argued that the laws were unconstitutional. When Roe was overturned, they argued that the laws violated the Idaho Constitution and the Idaho Human Rights Act. But the court ruled that the laws could be enforced because the petitioners could not prove that enforcing them would cause “irreparable harm.” The justices added that the petitioners did not meet the standard of “substantial likelihood of success” in overturning the laws. “What petitioners are ultimately asking the Court to do is to declare a right to abortion under the Idaho Constitution when — otherwise — it does not exist,” wrote Justice Robin Brodie for the majority, joined by the chief justice Richard Bevan and Judge Gregory Moeller. . “In fact, before Roe announced a federal constitutional right to abortion in 1973, abortion had long been a criminal offense in Idaho.” Two dissenting justices — Justices John Stegner and Colleen Zahn — said the laws should not be enforced until there is legal clarity. “It’s been just over a month since the U.S. Supreme Court ignored 50 years of precedent and plunged patients across the country into a world of chaos, fear and confusion,” Rebecca Gibron, the deputy executive director of the Planned Parenthood chapter that had testified. the suit, states a statement. “The Idaho State Legislature has made it very clear that this is the future they want for their constituents, and today, the court allowed their vision to become a reality.”
