US District Court judge says doctor may perform abortion if it protects the mother’s health, prevents self-harm. Other doctors face enforcement of near-total ban.
An Idaho federal judge has narrowed a previous ruling that had allowed abortions to protect a mother’s health or from self-harm to only apply to the Boise doctor who challenged the law.
The narrowed ruling issued Tuesday means that Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador and the Ada County prosecutor may not enforce Idaho’s felony abortion ban in cases where Dr. Stacy Seyb administered the procedure because of serious risk of harm due to physical health or mental health concerns.
Other doctors in Idaho will still be subject to Idaho’s near-total ban, which includes an exception to prevent the death of the mother but does not include exceptions to prevent her death from self-harm. Elective abortions are completely banned in Idaho.
U.S. District Court of Idaho Judge B. Lynn Winmill narrowed the ruling at the request of Labrador, who argued in a recent motion that Winmill’s initial decision was too broad.
Winmill agreed with Labrador, citing recent U.S. Supreme Court cases that ruled federal judges in most situations cannot issue “universal injunctions,” which block laws nationwide or more broadly than against the plaintiffs in the case.
Winmill wrote “an injunction limited to Dr. Seyb will suffice to address the alleged harm.”
Seyb was represented by attorneys from the Lawyering Project and Legal Voice in the case.
“While we are disappointed in the ruling, it is only one step in the litigation,” Tanya Pellegrini, co-director of litigation at the Lawyering Project said in an emailed statement. “We will continue to stand with providers and their patients to ensure it is safe to be pregnant in Idaho.”
Seyb is a maternal-fetal medicine physician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies. He challenged Idaho’s laws, testifying in court that he’s sent patients out of state amid health concerns because he did not feel comfortable providing abortions under the limited exceptions in Idaho’s law.
Idaho’s criminal abortion ban allows an abortion to prevent the death of the mother, to treat ectopic or molar pregnancies, and in cases of rape and incest in the first trimester, if there’s been a police report filed. Doctors who provide abortions that don’t fall within those exceptions face two to five years in prison and revocation of their medical license.
The judge denied Labrador’s request to fully eliminate the block on enforcement. Winmill remained “persuaded” abortions to protect women against serious health risks or against death from self-harm were constitutionally protected.
Labrador on Aug. 20 also appealed Winmill’s decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing the block defies the U.S. Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
This article was written by Laura Guido of the Idaho Capital Sun.