BOISE, Idaho — A court case challenging Idaho’s abortion bans under the U.S. Constitution will go to trial in June, where a Boise maternal-fetal medicine specialist hopes to win a carve-out in the state’s restrictive laws for abortion when the health of the mother is at risk.

Dr. Stacy Seyb filed the lawsuit against the members of the Idaho Board of Medicine and Ada County prosecutor’s office in May 2024. Seyb’s lawsuit said as an OB-GYN with a specialty in high-risk pregnancies, Idaho’s abortion bans interfered with his ability to provide “medically indicated” abortions for his patients.

According to the lawsuit, Seyb provided two or three abortions per month prior to the overturning of Roe v. Wade — the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that granted a national right to abortion — in 2022. The doctor said he now refers about six patients per month to out-of-state abortion providers when he would otherwise perform those services himself.

Abortion is illegal in Idaho in nearly all cases, except to save the life of the mother, for ectopic or molar pregnancies or in cases of rape or incest that have been reported to police.

Seyb’s lawsuit is scheduled for trial before a jury at the James A. McClure Federal Courthouse on June 8. It’s expected to last about a week.

The case is one of numerous lawsuits to challenge Idaho’s abortion bans, which were triggered by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case in which they overturned Roe v. Wade. Seyb’s lawsuit takes a new approach with a challenge to the laws’ compliance with the U.S. Constitution under the 14th Amendment, specifically the rights to due process and equal protection under the law.

Attorneys with The Lawyering Project, a nonprofit representing Seyb that focuses on expanding abortion access, argue in the lawsuit that the state’s abortion laws violate pregnant Idahoans’ 14th Amendment rights if they have pregnancy-related complications that jeopardize their health, if pregnancy exacerbates an existing or underlying health condition, if pregnancy puts them at risk for death from self-harm or if they have a pregnancy with fatal fetal conditions.

The lawsuit argues that, under Idaho abortion law, those patients are discriminated against and prevented from seeking treatment for “serious medical needs without undue governmental interference.”

How might abortion health care court case impact Idaho laws?

Stephanie Toti, executive director of The Lawyering Project and one of Seyb’s attorneys, told the Idaho Statesman in an interview that a victory in court wouldn’t eliminate the state’s abortion restrictions.

“We’re not asking the court to strike down the abortion ban in its entirety,” Toti said. “We’re only asking the court to strike it down as it applies to abortion for medical reasons, for health-related reasons.”

Last year, an Ada County judge ruled partially in favor of four women who sued the state when they were denied health condition-related abortions, but Toti pointed out that the judge didn’t rule that the Idaho laws violate the state constitution. Fourth District Judge Jason Scott clarified that abortion is legal if a pregnant patient “faces a non-negligible risk of dying sooner without an abortion,” even if the risk of death may not be certain. Scott’s ruling has not been reflected in the state’s abortion law language.

Toti said the Ada County ruling left major gaps in health care-related abortion cases that Seyb’s case seeks to address.

“For example, the Idaho statute currently allows abortions when necessary to save a pregnant person’s life, but not if the risk of death arises from the threat of self-harm,” Toti said. “So it bans abortion in cases where there’s a risk of suicide and overdose, even though Idaho’s own maternal mortality committee found for like five years in a row that mental illness, including suicidality and addiction, are leading underlying causes of death for pregnant people in Idaho.”

The lawsuit’s defendants — the members of the Idaho Board of Medicine and the Ada County prosecutor’s office — would be responsible for pursuing criminal and professional repercussions if a doctor is accused of performing an illegal abortion. Doctors face possible jail time and loss of their medical license if they’re found guilty.

Seyb initially named the prosecuting attorneys for each of Idaho’s 44 counties as defendants in the case, but U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill granted a motion to dismiss for all prosecutors outside of Ada County, where Seyb practices. Since the lawsuit was filed, the state of Idaho has also intervened as a defendant and moved for a summary judgment — a motion that would have secured a ruling in favor of the state without going to trial.

Winmill rejected that motion last month.

“At issue is not the general right to abortion — definitively rejected in Dobbs — but the right to self-preservation,” Winmill wrote.

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