The Department of Justice on Tuesday announced the first legal action against a state for restricting access to abortion since the Supreme Court turned the issue back to state governments, targeting Idaho for its restricive laws that ban nearly all abortions once a heartbeat is detected. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Department of Justice on Tuesday announced the first major legal action against a state for restricting access to abortion since the Supreme Court turned the issue back to state governments

  • Attorney General Merrick Garland said the DOJ is targeting Idaho for its restricive laws that ban nearly all abortions once a heartbeat is detected, which he says could violate federal law under certain circumstances 

  • Idaho, like many Republican-led states, has several anti-abortion laws on the books, creating a legal quagmire now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade

  • The lawsuit was brought because federal prosecutors believe Idaho’s law would force doctors to violate the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act

 

Idaho, like many Republican-led states, has several anti-abortion laws on the books, creating a legal quagmire now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade.

“Idaho’s law would make it a criminal offense for doctors to provide the emergency medical treatment that federal law requires,” attorney general Merrick Garland said in announcing the suit on Tuesday. "The Justice Department is going to use every tool we have to ensure reproductive freedom.” 

Garland said the federal government was bringing the lawsuit, which seeks to invalidate the state’s “criminal prohibition on providing abortions as applied to women suffering medical emergencies.”

The announcement is the first major action by the Justice Department challenging a state trigger law since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The lawsuit was brought because federal prosecutors believe Idaho’s law would force doctors to violate the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, a federal law that requires anyone coming to a medical facility for emergency treatment to be stabilized and treated.

Idaho lawmakers passed the state’s so-called trigger provision as part of a “fetal heartbeat” bill signed into law in 2020. It will ban all abortions except in the case of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother. Idaho became the first state to pass a law similar to Texas’ ban on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, which allowed regular citizens to enforce the ban with lawsuits. It was blocked by the state’s Supreme Court before it was set to go into effect in April.

Idaho’s law will go into effect on August 25, and Tuesday’s lawsuit alleged providers might neglect to perform life-saving procedures related to abortions out of fear they might be reported and even prosecuted by the state government. 

"The suit seeks to hold invalid the state's criminal prohibition on providing abortions, as applied to women who are suffering medical emergencies," Garland told reporters on Tuesday. "As detailed in our complaint, Idaho's law would make it a criminal offense for doctors to provide emergency medical treatment that federal law requires."