This is the second part of a deep dive into Idaho’s abortion landscape and where it might head in 2024. The first part covered two lawsuits regarding the state’s main ban.
While the future of Idaho’s abortion landscape hinges on the near-total ban the U.S. Supreme Court is considering, two other laws and subsequent lawsuits are still developing in the background.
Matsumoto v. Labrador, ‘Abortion Trafficking’
In yet another groundbreaking post-Roe law, Idaho Republican legislators sought to make it a crime to transport a minor out-of-state to receive an abortion without their parent’s consent. The state calls such interstate travel “abortion trafficking.”
Nampa attorney Lourdes Matsumoto, the Northwest Abortion Access Fund, and the Indigenous Idaho Alliance — all of whom sometimes assist minors in accessing abortions in other states where it’s legal — sued, saying the law violates the First, Fourth, and 14th Amendments.
In November, a district judge temporarily blocked the “abortion trafficking” law from being enforced. She wrote that the plaintiffs were likely correct in saying the law violated First and 14th Amendment rights and that it was overly vague, but threw out the Fourth Amendment argument for a right to intrastate travel.
6-Week Ban
Idaho still has a six-week abortion ban, which includes the Texas-style provision allowing a person’s family members to sue a doctor who provides them with an abortion. Even though this ban isn’t as strong as the ban currently in court, the system to report adds an extra feature to Idaho’s abortion landscape that few other states have.
