U.S. judge questions Idaho abortion ban in Biden administration challenge

A U.S. federal judge on Monday expressed concerns that a near-total ban on abortions set to take effect in Idaho could prevent doctors from providing emergency care to women endangered by pregnancy complications, as required by federal law.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise made the comments in the U.S. Department of Justice’s first challenge to a state’s abortion ban since the U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned the nationwide constitutional right to the procedure. He echoed the Biden administration’s concerns that the Idaho law, which takes effect Thursday, could discourage doctors from offering emergency abortions as required by federal law to pregnant women facing the risk of death or serious injury.

The Biden administration’s lawsuit, filed on Aug. 2, argues Idaho’s near-total ban would infringe on the rights women have to emergency medical care under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. Idaho officials argue the law allows for abortions to prevent the death of the pregnant woman. But Winmill noted the law did so only by allowing doctors prosecuted under the law to argue at trial that they had a good faith basis to believe the woman’s life was in danger.

“It would be rare situation where a doctor is willing or anxious to push the limits and go right up to the edge of what is allowed under the Idaho statute,” said Winmill, an appointee of former Democratic President Bill Clinton. About half of all U.S. states have or are expected to seek to ban or curtail abortions following the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 decision to overturn the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide.

Those states include Idaho, which like 12 others adopted “trigger” laws banning abortion upon such a decision. Trigger bans are being enforced in seven states and are set to take effect in Texas and Tennessee and North Dakota this week. The Idaho Supreme Court earlier this month allowed the state’s near-total ban to take effect. Abortions are already banned in Idaho after about six weeks of pregnancy under a different law now in effect.

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