The Idaho Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a law modeled after a Texas law that relies on ordinary citizens to enforce a ban on abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy as a way to circumvent its constitutionality.
The court’s order prevents the law, which could sue relatives of what it calls “an unborn child,” the abortion provider, from taking effect until the court can review it further. The law was set to go into effect on April 22, a month after Governor Brad Little signed it.
Proponents of the Idaho law have said Texas’s new strategy has been effective in preventing abortions. But abortion rights advocates have argued in court that the law, SB 1309, is “an attempt to end an established precedent” and allow an unconstitutional ban to take effect.
Under Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to abortion in 1973, states cannot prohibit abortion until a fetus is viable outside the womb, which is approximately 23 weeks of gestation with modern medical technology. But the court’s six conservative judges seemed willing to waive that decision when they heard pleas in December about a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks.
The court also declined to overturn the Texas law, which allows any citizen to sue someone who “helps or encourages” a woman to have an abortion after fetal heart activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy.
Idaho’s law, which aims to allow family members to sue abortion providers, sets a $20,000 minimum and legal fees. Lawsuits can be filed up to four years after an abortion.
Representative Steven Harris, a co-sponsor of the bill in the Idaho House, has previously said the Texas law it was based on was very effective. “It stopped physical abortions, chemical abortions in their tracks,” said Mr. Harris, who was not immediately available for comment on Friday’s decision.
When Mr. Little signed the Idaho bill after the House passed it by an overwhelming majority, he expressed concern about the measure’s wisdom and constitutionality and warned it could re-traumatize victims of sexual assault. mr. Little, a moderate Republican, said the law could conflict with Roe.
“While I support the pro-life policies in this legislation, I fear that the new civilian enforcement mechanism will be proven both unconstitutional and unwise in the near term,” wrote Mr. Little in a message to Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin, who also is chairman of the State Senate.
Planned Parenthood, which filed the petition to block the abortion ban, welcomed the Idaho Supreme Court residence on Friday, which was signed by Chief Justice G. Richard Bevan.
The state of abortion in the US
Who gets an abortion in America? The typical patient is most likely already a mother, poor, single, late 20s, college educated, and very early in pregnancy. Teenagers today have far fewer abortions. Nearly half of abortions take place in the first six weeks of pregnancy and almost all of them in the first trimester.
“We’re excited that abortion will remain accessible in the state for now, but our fight to ensure Idahoans have full access to their constitutionally protected rights is far from over,” Rebecca Gibron, the interim director of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, said in a statement. “Abortion lawmakers have made it clear that they will stop at nothing to control our lives, bodies and futures.”
The Idaho law is part of a vote of confidence from anti-abortion activists and lawmakers across the country, with both sides of the debate anticipating that the Supreme Court could soon reverse or overthrow Roe.
