Idaho Supreme Court Upholds State Abortion Laws, Dismissing Challenge From Planned Parenthood

A Planned Parenthood facility in Anaheim, Calif., on Sept. 10, 2020. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

The Idaho Supreme Court upheld the state’s near-total ban on abortion in response to a lawsuit from Planned Parenthood, pointing out that the procedure is not an inalienable right according to the state’s traditions.

Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky filed the lawsuit against three abortion laws in the state: one banning most abortions that was passed by the state legislature in 2020, another passed a year later which prohibits abortions once a heartbeat is detected, and a third law passed in 2022 that allows family members of an aborted baby to sue for damages.

On Thursday, the court dismissed the lawsuit in a 3–2 decision.

Idaho’s Inalienable Rights Clause was framed in 1889. To “read a fundamental right” into the Idaho Constitution, the court must examine whether the alleged right was “deeply rooted” in the history and traditions of Idaho at the time of statehood, Justice Robyn Brody wrote in the court’s majority opinion (pdf).

Only then can it be fairly concluded that the framers and adopters of the state’s Inalienable Rights Clause “intended to implicitly protect” that right, the court judged.

“When we apply that test to this dispute, there simply is no support for a conclusion that a right to abortion was ‘deeply rooted’ at the time the Inalienable Rights Clause was adopted,” Brody wrote.

“Nothing in the territorial laws of Idaho, the record of the 1889 constitutional convention, the surrounding common law and statutes, the surrounding publications of the times, or Idaho’s medical regulations at that time show abortion was viewed as a right entitled to heightened protection from the legislature’s regulatory power.”

Brody also noted that the state Supreme Court’s ruling does not prevent Idaho voters from “answering the deeply moral and political question of abortion at the polls.”

If Idaho citizens are dissatisfied with abortion laws, they can elect new legislators, the court said.

Dissenting Opinions

Justices John Stegner and Colleen Zahn dissented. In the dissenting opinion, Zahn pointed out that there is an “inescapable reality” that time heralds developments which the founders could not have contemplated. Idaho’s constitution did not freeze rights as they existed in 1890, Zahn insisted.

“We should look to Idaho’s history and traditions to determine the framers’ intent but not be locked into examining those rights only according to the circumstances in which they existed circa 1890,” she wrote.

Stegner claimed that the ruling strips the “most basic rights” of Idaho women to obtain an abortion, since pregnancy affects a women’s inalienable right to liberty, he said.

In a Jan. 5 statement, Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, called the Idaho Supreme Court decision a “dark day” for the state and insisted that “our fight is far from over.”

The Idaho Family Policy Center, a conservative Christian organization, welcomed the court decision.

“We have been saying for years that the Heartbeat law drafted and championed by Idaho Family Policy Center is  constitutionally, scientifically, and morally sound,” Blaine Conzatti, president of Idaho Family Policy Center, wrote in a statement. “Today settles that debate once and for all.”

“Because of these two pro-life laws, thousands of Idaho babies will receive the opportunity to live their lives and reach their highest potential," Conzatti said.