Hypothetical situations or real-life medical tragedies? A judge weighs an Idaho abortion ban lawsuit

BOISE, Idaho — An attorney for Idaho asked a judge on Thursday to throw out a lawsuit seeking clarity about the medical exemptions to the state’s broad abortion bans, saying it was based on hypothetical situations rather than current facts.

But an attorney for the four women and several physicians who sued says their claims aren’t hypothetical at all, but real-life tragedies happening in doctors’ offices and homes across the state.

Similar lawsuits are playing out around the nation, with some of them, like Idaho’s, brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of doctors and pregnant people who were denied access to abortions while facing serious pregnancy complications.

“The physicians go to work every day not knowing if they will be able to provide the necessary care to their patients,” Marc Hearron, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, told 4th District Judge Jason Scott.

The women and doctors suing aren’t asking the court to recognize a right to abortion in the state constitution, Hearron said. Instead, they want the judge to find that pregnant people are entitled to the fundamental rights that are specifically listed in the Idaho Constitution — including the right to enjoy and defend their own life and the right to secure their own safety.

James Craig, a division chief with the Idaho Attorney General’s office, told the judge that the Idaho Supreme Court has already upheld the state’s abortion bans. That should make the ruling in this case easy, Craig said, urging the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

The four women named in the case were all denied abortions in Idaho after learning they were pregnant with fetuses that were unlikely to go to term or survive birth, and that the pregnancies also put them at risk of serious medical complications. All four traveled to Oregon or Washington for the procedures.