The United States Supreme Court reinstates the near-total ban on abortion in Idaho this Friday pending consideration of an appeal against the measure. A hearing before the highest American court – which annulled the constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion in June 2022 – is scheduled for April.
Idaho, a rural state in the northwest of the country, has some of the most restrictive laws regarding voluntary termination of pregnancy, authorizing the procedure only in cases of imminent danger of death to the pregnant woman. Outside of this framework, anyone performing or assisting in performing an abortion risks up to five years in prison.
An appeal filed by the Biden administration
A federal judge in Boise, the capital of Idaho, issued a preliminary injunction in August 2022 that suspended that state’s law, arguing that it put doctors in an awkward position.
The Biden administration filed a lawsuit against the state of Idaho, arguing that the law conflicts with a federal law that requires hospitals receiving federal funds to provide emergency care, including IVG, in serious cases but not necessarily fatal.
“Nothing protects a physician from arrest or criminal prosecution under Idaho law, and a physician providing an abortion in Idaho can only avoid criminal liability by establishing that “the ‘abortion was necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman,’” says the Ministry of Justice.
Texas doctors face 99 years in prison
By annulling the constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion, the Supreme Court left American states free to enact their own legislation in this area. A Texan woman was recently forced to leave the southern state to obtain an emergency abortion. She was denied the procedure in Texas, despite the fact that her pregnancy posed potentially fatal risks to her health.
Doctors in Texas convicted of providing an abortion face up to 99 years in prison, fines of up to $100,000 and revocation of their medical licenses.