Health care provider sues over Idaho’s strict abortion ban

BOISE, Idaho — A regional Planned Parenthood organization is suing Idaho over a new law that bans nearly all abortions by allowing potential family members of the embryo to sue abortion providers.

The law, which is based on a similar one that Texas enacted last year, was signed by Idaho Gov. Brad Little last week. At the time, the governor said he supported the anti-abortion policy but was worried the enforcement mechanism of the law would soon be “proven both unconstitutional and unwise.”

Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, which operates 40 health centers across six states, filed the lawsuit with the Idaho Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Dr. Caitlin Gustafson, a family medicine doctor who has practiced in Idaho for nearly two decades, joined Planned Parenthood in the lawsuit. She said the abortion ban is “unconscionable and unconstitutional.”

“Life is hard. It’s messy and decisions about pregnancy are complicated and need to be made between a patient and their doctor without influence and direction from the government,” Gustafson said. “These situations are as complex and varied as all of us … I believe our elected officials shouldn’t be involved in making these intimate and personal medical decisions.”

Under the law, even extended family members like aunts and uncles of the patient seeking the abortion or the person who impregnated them could sue an abortion provider for more than $20,000 in damages. While rapists are barred from suing under the law, a rapist’s relatives could sue the abortion provider.

It applies to abortions carried out any time after six weeks of pregnancy — well before many people even know they are pregnant.

If the high court doesn’t intervene, the law will take effect on April 22.

“Even setting aside the fundamental right to privacy in making intimate familial decisions guaranteed by Idaho’s Constitution, the bill’s flaws are flagrant and many,” Planned Parenthood’s attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.