A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the portion of an Idaho law that would allow the state to prosecute doctors that refer patients out of state for abortions.
U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill made the ruling after a legal challenge filed by Planned Parenthood on the basis that the law violates the medical provider’s free speech.
“The Court finds that the Medical Providers have established that there is a genuine threat of prosecution. This threat has resulted in the chilling of the Medical Providers’ speech — a well-established concrete injury,” wrote Winmill.
Currently, Idaho law protects most preborn children from abortion. Written in the law is the stipulation that doctors who “assist” in abortion will lose their license to practice. Earlier this year, Attorney General Raul Labrador sent a private letter in which he said that the law “prohibits an Idaho medical provider from either referring a woman across state lines to access abortion services or prescribing abortion pills for the woman to pick up across state lines.”
After the letter was made public, Labrador withdrew it, saying, “It was not a guidance document, nor was it ever published by the Office of the Attorney General. Accordingly, I hereby withdraw it.” Despite this, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU filed their legal challenge on the belief that Labrador would enforce the law that way in the future.
The state argued that since Labrador withdrew the letter, the case should be considered moot. However, Winmill ruled that because the AG didn’t offer any formal assurances that he wouldn’t proceed in prosecuting law violators in this manner, the lawsuit could continue.
“It would not have been particularly difficult for the state to definitively establish that no case or controversy exists,” Winmill wrote. “Instead, the attorney general has strained at every juncture possible to distance himself from his previous statement without committing to a new interpretation or providing any assurances to this court or the medical providers. Attorney General Labrador’s targeted silence is deafening.”
In a statement provided to The Hill, Idaho Attorney General’s Office spokesperson Beth Cahill said:
In his 28-year career you’d be hard pressed to find a time when Judge Winmill has ruled against Planned Parenthood, so his decision is not surprising. Judge Winmill wants to restrain a power we don’t possess. We strongly disagree with his order.
On Tuesday, Labrador filed a notice to appeal Winmill’s decision in the U.S. District Court.
