Idaho attorney general cannot prosecute out-of-state abortion referrals: Judge
Rachel Schilke
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Idaho medical providers can temporarily refer patients out-of-state for abortion access without fear of prosecution after a judge granted an emergency request from state healthcare providers.
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill placed an injunction on Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador’s office that prevents him from prosecuting doctors who make these referrals, ruling that the restriction blocks medical providers’ free speech.
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The injunction, filed on Monday, only applies to Labrador, who stated in a legal opinion in March that medical professionals who provide abortion pills or refer patients across state lines could face prosecution. The end of Roe v. Wade triggered Idaho’s near-total abortion ban in August 2022, with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.
Planned Parenthood Great Northwest and two Idaho physicians, Caitlin Gustafson and Darin Weyhrich, filed a lawsuit against Labrador, the Idaho State Board of Medicine, and other defendants in April. They claimed that prosecuting doctors for the referrals violated their First Amendment rights, due process laws, and the commerce clause.
Medical professionals in Idaho will typically refer patients to clinics in Washington, Oregon, and Montana — neighboring states where abortion remains legal. Healthcare providers who violate Idaho’s abortion law are subject to the suspension or revocation of their medical license and may receive a prison sentence of two to five years.
While the case proceeds, Labrador’s office cannot bring any charges against Idaho medical providers for referring patients for abortion access, Winmill ruled.
“While we’re glad to see this outcome, the truth is that we should never have gotten to this point,” said Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest. “In case there’s any doubt: Planned Parenthood will not quietly let rights get sloppily stripped one by one until there’s nothing left. We will fight for Idaho patients every step of the way.”
Labrador wrote the March legal opinion at the request of Republican state Rep. Brent Crane on behalf of Idaho anti-abortion clinic Stanton Healthcare. However, the attorney general later sent a letter to Crane, letting him know that the March legal opinion was procedurally improper and therefore void.
He did not, however, say the interpretation of the law was incorrect, a move that Winmill said was a fatal mistake for his defense in the case.
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“It would not have been particularly difficult for the state to definitively establish that no case or controversy exists,” Winmill wrote. “Instead, the attorney general has strained at every juncture possible to distance himself from his previous statement without committing to a new interpretation or providing any assurances to this court or the medical providers. Attorney General Labrador’s targeted silence is deafening.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Labrador’s office for comment on the injunction.