The Idaho Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the implementation of a new abortion law in the state that has an enforcement mechanism modeled on an abortion ban in Texas, enabling the law to be enforced through private citizens filing lawsuits against abortion providers.
The abortion ban was signed into law on March 23, making Idaho the first state to enact legislation modeled after Texas’s ban.
Per the order, the ban will be blocked temporarily, pending a final decision. The court has ordered both sides to file further briefs as it considers the case.
Republican Gov. Brad Little had expressed concerns about whether the law, known as S.B. 1309, was constitutional when he signed the legislation.
It would allow certain family members—the father, the grandparent, a sibling, or an aunt or uncle of the unborn child—to bring a civil lawsuit against the abortion provider for a minimum of $20,000 in damages, within four years after the alleged abortion. Rapists can’t file a lawsuit under the law, but a rapist’s relatives could.
“Deputizing private citizens to levy hefty monetary fines on the exercise of a disfavored but judicially recognized constitutional right for the purpose of evading court review undermines our constitutional form of government and weakens our collective liberties. None of the rights we treasure are off limits,” he added. “How long before California, New York, and other states hostile to the First and Second Amendments use the same methods to target our religious freedoms and right to bear arms?”
“We are thrilled that abortion will remain accessible in the state for now, but our fight to ensure that Idahoans can fully access their constitutionally protected rights is far from over,” Rebecca Gibron, interim CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, and Kentucky, said in a statement after Friday’s court action.
