IDAHO, USA — Planned Parenthood filed a new lawsuit in the Idaho Supreme Court Monday against the state’s “trigger” ban that makes abortion a crime at any point in pregnancy.
The trigger law was passed by the Idaho state legislature in 2020, and it is scheduled to take effect at the end of this summer. It would impose severe criminal penalties on anyone who violates its terms.
Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky (PPGNHAIK) and abortion provider Dr. Caitlin Gustafson previously filed a lawsuit against the six week 'Texas-Style' abortion law that the Idaho legislature passed earlier this year.
Following Friday's Supreme Court decision by the court’s conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade, PPGNHAIK filed a new lawsuit Monday, which challenges the full abortion trigger ban that will outlaw all abortion 30 days after the SCOTUS decision.
According to the filed lawsuit, the total abortion ban violates Idahoans’ right to privacy and equal protection under the Idaho Constitution. The lawsuit claims that the ban’s terms are unconstitutional vague that will make medical providers unable to know when they are allowed to provide care for patients experiencing miscarriage or when they may provide an abortion needed to protect a patient’s life.
“In a single moment, Idahoans’ right to control their own bodies, lives, and personal medical decisions was taken away but we will not stand for it. We will never back down. We will never stop fighting,” Rebecca Gibron, PPGNHAIK CEO said in a written statement.
According to PPGNHAIK, if the total abortion ban takes effect, it will force patients to travel out of the state if they have the means, carry an unintended or dangerous pregnancy to term against their will, or look for abortion care outside the health care system.
The ban will impact Idaho’s communities of color, people with low incomes, and those living in rural areas, according to PPGNHAIK.
“It is abhorrent that we have now entered an era where the delivery of safe essential health care will be criminalized,” Caitlin Gustafson, MD said. “Physicians take an oath to provide the care patients need to keep them safe, so we cannot stand by while the government intrudes on this deeply personal and complex medical decision.”
The petition was filed by WilmerHale and Bartlett French lawyers on behalf of PPGNHAIK. They are asking the State of Idaho to request relief by Aug.18, 2022.