Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit Wednesday to block a new abortion ban in Idaho designed under Texas law designed to avoid litigation.
The Health Care Provider Petition asks the Idaho Supreme Court to block state law prohibiting abortion after six weeks of pregnancy that many people do not even realize they are pregnant until it takes effect on April 22nd. .
“This law is a cruel abuse on the part of politicians who are so deliberately in control of the lives of their constituents that they are willing to compromise our constitutional rights and violate our health and safety by banning abortion, “said Rebecca Gibron, administrator delegate. Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, which filed a lawsuit Wednesday.
Like the Texas ban that took effect last year, Idaho law contains an unusual legal loophole that poses judicial challenges in a fierce battle for abortion rights groups. Instead of asking the state to enforce the ban, the law requires potential fetal family members to do so. It offers a $ 20,000 financial incentive if an individual successfully sues someone in need of “help and encouragement” of abortion – double the bonus offered in Texas.
“It should be clear to everyone that the Idaho legislature deliberately ignored the rule of law when it passed a six -week abortion ban,” Planned Parenthood CEO and President Alex McGill Johnson said Wednesday. “The governor then joined their efforts to deny the constitutional rights of his constituents when he signed a law banning abortion, despite his own admission that it was wrong.”
When Idaho Governor Brad Little signed the bill last week, he acknowledged that it could violate the Constitution.
“While I support the pro-life policy on this law, I fear that the new civil enforcement mechanism will soon prove unconstitutional and unreasonable,” she wrote to Lieutenant General Jenny McGeechin (R), who also serves as governor. President of the Idaho Senate.
But so far, a law like Texas has been able to get stuck amid many legal challenges. Earlier this month, the Texas Supreme Court dealt a severe blow to abortion providers when it ruled that state officials could not be held accountable for enforcing a six -week abortion ban and therefore could not sue at the judgment of the law.
Idaho was the first state to enact a copy of Texas law, something abortion providers have warned should happen in many red states after the Texas ban proved effective in avoiding lawsuits.
“Texas lawmakers have found a flaw that could make Rowe Wade’s abolition and the constitutional right to abortion a reality,” Ashley Cofield, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, Tennessee and North, told HuffPost last year. . Mississippi.
Source: Huffpost
