Idaho abortion ban largely allowed to go into effect

Idaho can largely enforce its first-in-the-nation ban on abortion trafficking, except for a section that prohibits individuals from providing truthful and non-misleading information about abortion to minors, a federal appeals court said Monday.

The provision’s “recruitment” approach is an unconstitutional, overbroad provision that “prohibits a significant scope of protected expression compared to its clearly legitimate scope,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said. However, this principle can be removed from the rest of the provision to allow enforcement of the rest of the law, as it is “neither essential nor indispensable” to the implementation of the measure, the court said.

The law threatens adults with criminal prosecution for “trafficking” in minors – that is, recruiting, harboring or transporting minors for the purpose of obtaining an abortion, with the specific intent of concealing it from their parents. A district court stopped enforcement, but the appeals court lifted the injunction on the port and transportation portions.

Harboring and transporting minors constitutes non-expressive conduct that would not be protected by the First Amendment, Judge M Margaret McKeown said.

Judge John B. Owens agreed with the majority decision.

Judge Carlos T. Bea disagreed, saying the plaintiffs had not established standing because they had only sued Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador (R), who had no authority to enforce the provision unless one of the state’s 44 district attorneys refused yourself to do this. Bea would have completely lifted the district court’s preliminary injunction.

Abortion is largely illegal in Idaho, and the state was the first to pass a law that, while it doesn’t prohibit anyone from traveling to another state for an abortion, makes it difficult for reproductive rights advocates to provide the state’s teenagers with the To convey the message that abortions are still possible elsewhere.

Proponents of the law said it was necessary to protect parents’ rights to determine their children’s health care and to prevent adults from taking advantage of vulnerable teenagers. Abortion rights advocates say the law is actually a travel ban that would violate provisions of the U.S. Constitution that protect the right to interstate travel.

Tennessee became the second state to pass an abortion trafficking law when Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed the law on May 29. Abortion workers there challenged the provision and recently asked a federal district court to grant summary judgment in their favor.

The Idaho Attorney General’s Office represents the state. Stoel Rives LLP, Legal Voice and Lawyering Project represent groups that said the law targets them.

The case is Matsumoto v. Labrador, 9th Cir., No. 23-3787, 12/2/24.