A district judge in Boise, Idaho, issued a ruling on Aug. 13 that loosened the state’s near-total ban on abortion.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill said Idaho’s laws, the Defense of Life Act and Fetal Heartbeat Act, unconstitutionally provide exceptions for abortions when they are life-saving and for some instances of sexual assault but not broader health risks, including long-term effects, self-harm, and suicide.
Winmill said his decision is not “an attempt to relitigate” the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which returned power to the states to regulate abortions by overturning the high court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion.
“It is not about bodily autonomy or reproductive choice,” the judge said in his 81-page ruling. “Rather, it is about a pregnant woman’s ability to seek necessary obstetric care under the most difficult and tragic circumstances. It is about whether the state may pick and choose which life-threatening conditions can justify an abortion.”
Winmill added that his decision is about women’s self-preservation and limiting a state’s power “to make a woman suffer for the sake of an unborn child.”
The judge made his ruling that health-preserving abortions are protected in alignment with the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the 14th Amendment, which “establish a narrow but fundamental right to abortion when a pregnancy threatens the woman’s life or health.”
“A pregnant woman’s health is not a state resource to be allocated at the legislature’s whim,” the judge wrote.
Dr. Stacy Seyb, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, challenged Idaho’s laws under the 14th Amendment, arguing they go too far in blocking women from having abortions when a pregnancy poses serious long-term risks to their health, increases their chance of self-harm or suicide, and if the unborn child is likely to die from defects shortly after birth.
Winmill’s decision partially blocked enforcement of the two abortion laws with regard to those aforementioned circumstances, except for when the child has a life-limiting condition—unless the condition also poses a serious threat to the mother. The ruling also did not allow abortion exceptions in cases of twins or triplets.
“For Idahoans who oppose this law, the solution lies at the ballot box rather than the courthouse,” the judge said.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador indicated he would appeal Winmill’s decision, saying that he was confident it would be overturned.
In a post on X, Labrador accused the judge of making up legislation that gave a new constitutional right to abortion, which the Supreme Court rejected in its 2022 Dobbs decision.
“The Supreme Court made clear that abortion policy belongs to the people and their elected representatives, not a single federal judge,” Labrador said in his post.
The attorney general accused the judge of ignoring “clear precedent” that district judges have no authority to issue universal injunctions.
Seyb, the maternal-fetal medicine specialist, was represented by lawyers from pro-abortion groups Legal Voice and the Lawyering Project.
They released a joint statement on Aug. 13, welcoming the decision.
“I have been caring for Idaho patients with high-risk pregnancies for nearly 30 years,” Seyb said, adding that the ruling “allows me to once again offer patients with serious medical conditions the option of ending a pregnancy without leaving the state and to practice medicine without fear of criminal prosecution.”
Lawyering Project Executive Director Stephanie Toti said in the statement that abortion, when facing a serious medical condition, is akin to an individual’s right to self-defense. Judge Winmill used the same reasoning.
Meanwhile, the Idaho Family Policy Center, a nonprofit Christian ministry, denounced Winmill’s ruling but said it leaves the Defense of Life and Fetal Heartbeat Acts largely enforceable.
“Abortion is never a valid form of psychiatric care,” said Blaine Conzatti, president of the group. “Women struggling with mental health need treatment, not the enduring trauma that inevitably accompanies the unnecessary death of her preborn child.”
Idahoans will vote on a measure this November that, if approved, would roll back the state’s abortion laws even further, allowing an abortion up until fetal viability or around 21 weeks.
