Idaho Republican Attorney General Raúl Labrador announced on Thursday that he is appealing a decision by a federal judge empowering abortionists to effectively circumvent the state’s pro-life laws.
Most abortions are illegal throughout pregnancy in Idaho, with a trigger ban starting at conception and civil liability law starting at six weeks. Exceptions are permitted for rape, incest, or when allegedly necessary to save a mother’s life. In January 2023, the Idaho Supreme Court upheld the bans and ruled that the Idaho Constitution does not contain a “right” to abortion.
Last week, however, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled in favor of a 2024 suit brought by Boise physician Stacy Seyb, declaring a “narrow but fundamental right to abortion when a pregnancy threatens the woman’s life or health.” Idaho’s law makes exceptions to “prevent the death of the pregnant woman” but not for “health,” a standard that abortionists are notorious for abusing by defining health so broadly as to include nearly any consideration.
“By banning health-preserving abortion, Idaho attempts to deny this fundamental right on the basis that the threat of harm comes from a fetus, which depends on the woman for survival,” the judge wrote. “But a pregnant woman’s health is not a state resource to be allocated at the legislature’s whim. The Fourteenth Amendment exists precisely to prevent subjugation like this.”
Now, Labrador announced that he has filed a notice of appeal with the Ninth Circuit plus an emergency motion demanding the state be allowed to enforce the law in full while the case proceeds.
“A federal judge has replaced Idaho’s law with his own abortion standard, broad enough to treat even the ordinary risks of a C-section as justification for an abortion,” the attorney general said. “He did so at the request of a doctor who admitted under oath he never bothered to learn what Idaho law permits yet sent expectant mothers out of state when he could have cared for them here immediately. Dobbs made clear that abortion policy belongs to the people and their elected state representatives, not the judiciary. We have appealed to the Ninth Circuit, and we will fight until this ruling is reversed and Idaho’s law is restored.”