Idaho AG claims partial victory as judge issues ruling on abortion law exceptions

An Idaho judge has issued a ruling expanding medical exceptions in a law protecting preborn children from abortion, though the law itself will remain in place.

Judge Jason D. Scott said in his ruling that abortions must be permitted in an emergency if the woman is more likely to die without it than she is with it, even if her death is “neither imminent nor assured.” This decision was in response to a lawsuit, Adkins v. the State of Idaho, in which the Center for Reproductive Rights sued on behalf of four plaintiffs.

Despite broadening the medical exemptions, Scott didn’t grant a total victory to the plaintiffs. He refused to allow abortions due to fetal disability or defect, when doctors said the preborn child would not survive the pregnancy, which Attorney General Raúl Labrador hailed as a victory, saying, “While we still disagree with portions of the ruling, it confirms what my office has argued in courts from Boise to Washington, D.C. — that Idaho’s abortion laws are constitutional and protect both unborn children and their mothers.”

All four plaintiffs were women who sought abortions not because their lives were in imminent danger, but because their preborn children had been diagnosed with disabilities. The Center for Reproductive Rights claimed these diagnoses put the women at risk of developing conditions like pre-eclampsia, which could potentially put their lives at risk, even though there were no indications that any of the women actually had pre-eclampsia or any other pregnancy-related medical conditions. As Dr. Jeffrey Wright, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, previously explained to Live Action News, “All pregnancies involve some risk of gestational diabetes and preeclampsia.”

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Jennifer Adkins, one of the plaintiffs, traveled outside of Idaho to have an abortion after her baby was diagnosed with Turner syndrome.

“It’s been an emotional rollercoaster hearing this decision,” she told the Associated Press. “This cruel law turned our family tragedy into an unimaginable trauma. No one wants to learn that your baby has a deadly condition and will not survive, and that your own life is at risk on top of that.”

Yet Turner syndrome is not a deadly condition; in fact, according to the Mayo Clinic, most girls and women with Turner syndrome lead normal, healthy lives. Adkins said doctors told her she could develop Mirror Syndrome, when the mother develops symptoms mimicking that of the baby — but, again, this had not happened. Her daughter was alive, and Adkins was healthy, so doctors in Idaho refused to commit an abortion, leading her to travel out of the state.