In the Idaho lawsuit, the Center’s plaintiffs debate the harmful effects of state abortion bans

The Center for Reproductive Rights recently made the case using testimony from Idaho women who were denied abortion care despite serious pregnancy complications Adkins v. State of Idahoa case challenging medical exemptions to the state’s abortion bans.

The trial took place November 12-21 at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise. Doctors who were prevented from caring for patients because of government bans also testified in court.

The case, filed in 2023, aims to clarify and expand the bans’ medical exceptions to ensure that doctors can legally perform abortions to protect a pregnant person’s health and safety, including in the case of fatal fetal diagnoses.

The women who were denied abortion care were diagnosed with serious and fatal fetal conditions that also endangered their own health and lives. Because of the state’s abortion bans, they were unable to receive necessary medical care in Idaho and were forced to leave the state for treatment.

“All four of these women were overjoyed to be pregnant with their second child, and all four received the worst news a mother could imagine,” Gail Deady, the center’s lead attorney, said in court. All women sought abortions “to protect their health, to protect their babies from pain and suffering, and to stay alive and healthy to protect their young children,” she continued.

Press conference after the first day of clashes

After the first day of testimony, Deady and the plaintiffs spoke to the press outside the courthouse.

Comments from Lead Plaintiff Jennifer Adkins:

Other Center plaintiffs who spoke at the press conference included:

• Rebecca Vincen Brown: “It is devastating and heartbreaking to be the victim of a fatal fetal diagnosis. Receiving this news while living in Idaho with limited maternal care options takes that shock and horror to a whole new level. . . I’ll be honest with you: we never thought we would need an emergency abortion for a child we’ve been trying for so long. These situations seem rare until they happen to you or someone you know and love.”
• Jillaine St.Michel: “For us there was no option that would result in a healthy baby. But because of Idaho’s cruel abortion ban, instead of grieving our loss at home with family and friends, we had to figure out how to get out of the state, how to pay for it, and how to travel with a toddler Abortion to receive the vital medical care I desperately needed at that moment: an abortion that would keep me physically and emotionally healthy. . . No woman should have to wonder in their worst moments whether they can receive the medical care they desperately need. No woman should ever have to wonder whether the provider in front of her is willing to risk her career to save her life. Nobody should have the feeling that this is irrelevant or devalued by their own state.”
• Kayla Smith: “I never imagined that I would be standing here in front of all of you today, alongside these strong women, grieving not only the loss of our pregnancies, but also the loss of our bodily autonomy and our right to self-determination. . . When my husband and I found out that our expectant son had multiple fatal fetal conditions just two days after Idaho’s trigger ban went into effect, no one in the state where we lived could help us. These laws do not allow our doctors to treat us with compassion or provide us with the standard of medical care in the dire situations we find ourselves in.”
• Jennifer Adkins: “Instead of grieving the loss of our baby with family and friends, we had to start looking for the care I needed. . . So we grieved the loss of our daughter alone and had to leave the medical team we had loved and trusted through our previous pregnancy.”
• Dr. Crystal L. Pyrak, President of the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians: “As a family doctor who delivers babies, I can tell you that my patient’s health and well-being is always my top priority. Laws written by politicians that interfere with the doctor-patient relationship should never stand in the way of a doctor providing the standard of care that each patient needs for their individual situation.”
• Dr. Emily Corrigan, a gynecologist and one of the center’s complaining doctors: “I see it every day: the health care system in Idaho is collapsing. Reproductive health care providers have suffered significant moral and professional harm in the last two years. We were forced to break our oath and deny our patients the care we are trained to provide. . . The national standard of care should not simply disappear when you cross state lines and get into a prohibition state like Idaho. All Americans should have access to evidence-based health care, regardless of where they live. The state of Idaho is failing women, their families and Idaho’s doctors.”

Read more about the plaintiffs’ stories here.

“The court must “Protect pregnant Idahoans and provide clarity to physicians about what circumstances qualify as exceptions,” Deady said. “We are simply asking the state to allow doctors to make their own medical judgments without fear of prosecution.”

View photos from the press conference.