(CN) — A federal judge in Idaho Monday granted a preliminary injunction that prevents Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador from prosecuting medical providers who refer patients out of state for legal abortion services.
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill's order also denied Labrador’s attempt to dismiss the case brought by Planned Parenthood Great Northwest and two doctors in April. The judge said the plaintiffs have established a threat of prosecution that violates their First Amendment right of protected speech.
The case at hand traces back to a letter Labrador sent on March 17, 2023, to Idaho Republican Representative Brent Crane, which made a sweeping interpretation of the word “assist” within Idaho’s strict abortion ban.
The state's statute maintains that most abortions are a felony punishable by two to five years imprisonment. Any medical provider who assists in performing or attempting to perform a prohibited abortion will have their medical license suspended for a first offense and revoked after a second. However, the letter Labrador wrote — which was subsequently shared by pro-life group Stanton International and used for fundraising efforts — interpreted the word “assist” to include providing information about or referring patients to out-of-state abortion services.
Nine days after Labrador’s letter, Planned Parenthood and doctors Caitlin Gustafson and Darin Weyhrich sued Labrador, Idaho’s prosecuting attorneys and its state boards for nursing and medicine. The plaintiffs said Labrador’s interpretation is unconstitutional because it stretches the enforcement of Idaho’s law to legal practices outside the state, in addition to a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to prevent potential prosecution.
Although Labrador wrote a new letter withdrawing his interpretation two days later, the plaintiffs remained concerned about the threat of Idaho’s abortion laws under his prior interpretation and maintained they are still forced to withhold information and recommendations about legal abortion services.
In Winmill’s order on Monday, the judge explains that the Crane letter “unambiguously states that ‘Idaho law prohibits an Idaho medical provider from either referring a woman across state lines to access abortion services’ and any ‘Idaho health care professional who refers a woman across state lines to an abortion provider … has given support or aid to the woman in performing or attempting to perform an abortion and has thus violated the statute.’”
“Each of the medical provider plaintiffs easily fall within the broad category of ‘medical provider.’ Moreover, the speech they say is chilled is the exact speech criminalized under the attorney general’s interpretation of the statute,” Winmill added.
The judge's order, however, does not apply to the state’s Board of Medicine and Board of Nursing, citing that the plaintiffs “failed to explain what authority either board has to prosecute or enforce violations of Idaho’s criminal abortion statute.”
Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky said in a statement that while the organization is happy with the order, it shouldn’t have come to this point.
“The legal opinion issued by Attorney General Labrador was the result of Representatives Crane partnering with an extremist anti-abortion group to try to game the system, and all parties are complicit in denying Idaho patients critical medical information since the letter was shared,” Gibron said.
Initially, the letter Labrador wrote was meant to be private.
“Idahoans deserve transparency into their attorney general’s interpretation of the law, but AG Labrador continued to dodge questions and refuse to take responsibility for his words,” Gibron said. “In case there’s any doubt: Planned Parenthood will not quietly let rights get sloppily stripped one by one until there’s nothing left. We will fight for Idaho patients every step of the way.”
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