Idaho abortion law under fire after new lawsuit

BOISE, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — A group of women are suing the state of Idaho over abortion bans in situations of pregnancy complications.

The trial for the lawsuit began in Boise on Tuesday, as the plaintiff’s attorney took the stand.

Attorney Gail Deady is from the Center for Reproductive Rights and gave her opening statement. She represents three mothers who were all denied abortion care, two physicians, and the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians.

Deady told the court about her client, Jennifer Adkins, who, at 12 weeks of pregnancy, discovered her baby had a lethal fetal condition, and her life was also at risk.

In April 2023, she and her husband drove for care from Caldwell to Portland, Oregon.

“Mrs. Adkins had no choice but to make that drive, she received abortion care outside her community, without her family and her support system and without the Idaho physicians that she knew and trusted, she will tell you today that she made that trip to get the medical care she needed, not only for her own health and safety, but to also make sure that she could be there to parent her 18 month old son.”

Meanwhile, the state’s attorney, Jim Craig, also made an opening statement to defend the law.

“They’re asking the court to write into the law exceptions that do not exist that the Idaho legislature has decided not to add essentially. They’re saying judge, we don’t like the language that’s in the law. So just rewrite the law, give us something that we like better. That’s not the role of this court. The role of the court is to determine concrete facts and then apply the law to those facts.”

The trial is scheduled to end on Nov. 21.

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