Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky v. Idaho

Facts

Before Roe v. Wade abortion had been a criminal offense in Idaho for more than 100 years. The first-ever assembly enacted a law that made performing an abortion a crime except when a physician deemed it 'necessary' to 'save' the life of a pregnant woman. Through various sessions, the legislature keeps affirming the law. During the constitutional convention to formulate and propose a state constitution, abortion was never mentioned in the minutes of the convention. At the first legislative session following statehood, from 1890 to 1891, roughly one year after the constitutional convention, many portions of the 1887 Revised Statutes were repealed, amended, or revised-but no legislator moved to change the criminal abortion laws still in force. Time and time again the criminal prohibition against abortion was recodified but remained substantially the same. After Roe the legislature enacted new regulations based on Roe, and included a trigger provision that would repeal the new statutes and implement the prior criminal prohibitions against abortion 'in the event that the states are again permitted to safeguard the lives of unborn infants before the twenty-fifth week of pregnancy.' In 2020, the legislature passed the Total Abortion Ban, making it a felony for anyone to perform, attempt to perform, or assist with an abortion. It was to go into effect thirty days following 'the issuance of the judgment in any decision of the United States supreme court that restores to the states their authority to prohibit abortion . . . .' The Total Abortion Ban makes all 'abortions' a crime and includes a provision directing the appropriate professional licensing board to implement certain penalties against 'any health care professional' who violates it. It allows two affirmative defenses: (1) 'the physician determined, in his good faith medical judgment and based on the facts known to the physician at the time, that the abortion was necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman'; and (2) in the case of rape or incest, prior to the abortion, the woman provided the physician with a copy of her report of rape or incest to law enforcement. The Fetal Heartbeat Act makes it a felony to perform an abortion on a woman when a fetal heartbeat is detected but exempts from prosecution cases involving a medical emergency, rape, or incest. In 2022, the Idaho Legislature amended and re-codified the Fetal Heartbeat Act to expand the private cause of action in favor of fathers, grandparents, siblings, aunts, and uncles of the preborn child and to add statutory minimum damages of $20,000. Ps filed their first Petition for Writ of Prohibition claiming the laws as violative of the Idaho Constitution under: (1) the separation of powers doctrine by usurping the executive branch's enforcement authority and handing it to private citizens to the exclusion of executive actors; (2) the 'special' law prohibition; (3) an implicit constitutional guarantee of informational privacy; (4) the due process clause based on the law's minimum statutory damages of $20,000; (5) the equal protection clause by disproportionately punishing medical providers who provide abortions compared to other medical providers; and (6) an implicit fundamental right to abortion within one, some, or a combination of sections 1, 17, and 21 in Article I. The State and the Intervenors (Ds) responded to the petition, arguing the Idaho Constitution does not contain an implicit fundamental right to abortion, and that no part of the Civil Liability Law is otherwise unconstitutional. Approximately three weeks later, the United States Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. It held that the Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. The Dobbs decision 'triggered' the Total Abortion Ban. Ps filed a second petition. Ps contend that there are implicit constitutional rights under the Idaho Constitution to bodily autonomy, privacy, and intimate family decision-making that include the right to abortion. The United States sued the State of Idaho requesting declaratory and injunctive relief against enforcement of the Total Abortion Ban to the extent it allegedly conflicts with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). The party challenging a statute on constitutional grounds 'bears the burden' of establishing that the statute is unconstitutional 'and must overcome a strong presumption of validity.'

Issues

Rule of Law

Holding and Decision

Legal Analysis

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