Court rules Idaho can enforce travel ban on interstate abortions

A federal appeals court has ruled that Idaho can enforce its abortion travel ban, which prohibits minors from traveling outside the state for abortions without parental consent.

Monday’s decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 2023 decision that had blocked the law on First Amendment grounds.

The law, signed last year by Gov. Brad Little (R), created a new crime called “abortion trafficking,” which is defined as “an adult … with the intent to obtain an abortion in front of the parents or guardian of a pregnant woman.” Woman to hide, unemancipated minor either arranges for an abortion…or obtains an abortion drug” for that minor. According to the law, “abortion trafficking” includes “recruiting, harboring, or transporting” a pregnant minor for an abortion. Violations are punishable by two to five years in prison.

The bill’s broad language criminalizes anyone who transports a pregnant minor without parental consent within Idaho to receive abortion care, including outside of a clinic. For example, this could apply to a grandmother driving a pregnant minor to the post office to pick up a package containing abortion medication.

The appeals court largely upheld the law, except for language that prohibited “recruitment,” a vague term that was not defined in the law. The jury concluded that the hiring provision was “unconstitutionally overbroad because it prohibits a significant amount of protected expression.”

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, a vocal abortion opponent, called the ruling a “tremendous victory” in a news release.

“Idaho’s laws were specifically enacted to protect the life of the unborn and the mother,” Labrador said. “Trafficking a minor child for an abortion without parental consent puts both at great risk, and we will not stop protecting life in Idaho.”

The Idaho law is one of two laws in the country that prohibit minors from leaving the state for abortion care. It was the first after the overturn of Roe v. Wade was implemented and is the only law of its kind that provides punishment for a crime.

“This decision is devastating for young people in Idaho and the trusted adults who support them,” Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, said in a news release.

“Instead of protecting our youth, this law puts them at risk,” she continued. “It forces minors in abusive households to disclose pregnancies, often with serious consequences, while criminalizing those who offer them help.”

Idaho is one of the most extreme anti-abortion states in the country. Once Roe was overturned, the state imposed a six-week ban with a private enforcement mechanism, and Little signed a near-total abortion ban just a month later. Idaho went all the way to the Supreme Court to argue that women should not have access to abortion care during a medical emergency, claiming that Idaho’s abortion ban overrides federal law that requires most hospitals to offer abortion care when necessary Stabilization of a woman’s health is required pregnant patient.

Read the Ninth Circuit’s decision below:

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