Idaho Appeals Court Debates Law Criminalizing Aid for Minors’ Out-of-State Abortions

Idaho Appeals Court Debates Law Criminalizing Aid for Minors' Out-of-State Abortions
Idaho Appeals Court Debates Law Criminalizing Aid for Minors' Out-of-State Abortions. Creditb | Getty images

United States – On Tuesday, a state of Idaho lawyer told a federal appeal panel to reinstitute a 2023 enacted law that criminalizes aid given to minors who cross state lines to get an abortion without parents’ consent, which a district court judge blocked in November.

Scope of the Law

“The law is fairly narrow in scope and not objectionable,” Dow Turner, Idaho Deputy Solicitor General, argued to the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle, as reported by Reuters.

“It prohibits strange adults from recruiting, harboring or transporting unemancipated minors within Idaho to procure an abortion, but only when that act is done with the specific intent to conceal it from the unemancipated minor’s parents or guardians.”

Constitutional Challenge

A U. S.  district court judge in Boise had blocked enforcement of the law with a temporary injunction in November as she considers a lawsuit brought by Lourdes Matsumoto, a lawyer and advocacy worker, as well as by the Northwest Abortion Access Fund and Indigenous Idaho Alliance, which support people in Idaho who need to travel out of the state to get an abortion. They claimed that the law violated their freedom of speech, which is an element of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

According to the attorney, Wendy Olson, the panel needs to uphold the order because “the law seeks to criminalize an uncertain amount of undefined assistance to minors,” and it becomes a regulation or speech suppression if plaintiffs are not allowed to tell minors about abortion issues.

Appeals Panel Deliberations

Circuit Judges M.  Margaret McKeown, appointed by a Democratic president, and John Owens, also appointed by a Democratic president, displayed an openness to restoring at least a small part of the law. Republican then-President George W.  Bush’s appointee for the post of Circuit Judge, Carlos Bea, remained silent when the arguments were being made.

McKeown posed several questions during the argument, including the logistics of transporting someone and to what extent such transport could be substantially punished by the First Amendment.

Aside from that, she petitioned both parties if insisting on the “recruiting” subpart could be set aside on grounds of speech that include merely telling minors how to get abortions as it may violate any person’s right to free speech. However, the harboring and transportation subparts remain valid.

Turner stated that, while accommodation and travel could be, the transfer could still be protected by the First Amendment’s clause on freedom of association.

Idaho prohibits most abortions. A doctor is allowed to do an operation for the abortion only when the mother’s life is in serious danger or if the rape or incest has been reported to the police. Nevertheless, they are in the adjoining Washington, Oregon, and Montana, which enable them.

The major provision of this is that it mandates that adults who aid girls to access surgical or medication abortion without the consent of their parents or guardians serve a minimum of two years in prison if found guilty.

Broader Context

One of the cases is an example of a group of not-so-easy laws that make it a crime to assist people to travel to countries where abortion is legal year 2022 saw the U.  S.  Supreme Court reversing Roe v. Wade, a 1973 landmark case that stated the right to an abortion in the United States, as reported by Reuters. 

An Alabama health practitioners’ group and a state fund that aids in people’s life situations in the state filed a lawsuit a few years ago to bar all people from being charged under state law over abortion assistance. Alabama’s Republican attorney general had hinted at stronger penalties for those who would encourage others to do so, with possible prosecutions involving criminal stuff like being an “accomplice”.