(Coeur d’Alene Press) A panel of federal judges Monday largely upheld Idaho’s “abortion trafficking” law, a measure passed in the 2023 legislative session meant to punish an adult who helps a minor seek an abortion in another state or obtain medication that will induce an abortion.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion reverses U.S. Magistrate Judge Debora K. Grasham’s November 2023 decision, which blocked enforcement of the law after Idaho attorney Lourdes Matsumoto and two advocacy organizations, the Northwest Abortion Access Fund and the Indigenous Idaho Alliance, filed a lawsuit against the state. The plaintiffs alleged the law restricts freedom of speech, the right to travel and the right to freely associate, and said it was too vague to be constitutional.
Idaho has a near-total ban on abortions at any stage of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape and incest victims who provide a police report documenting the crime and who are no more than 12 weeks pregnant. (Read More)
