Idaho Women Challenge Strict Abortion Laws in Court After Being Denied Care

In Ada County District Court this week, four women will testify in a case that could change Idaho's strict abortion rules. The lawsuit, which was filed last year, challenges the state's limits on abortion, especially the fact that there are no exceptions for fatal fetal abnormalities. It also wants to make it clear when doctors can legally perform abortions without being charged with a crime.

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The Idaho Academy of Family Physicians, two doctors, and the four women who had to leave the state to get abortions after finding out they were pregnant no longer had the right to do so. The lawsuit says that Idaho's abortion rules have made the women who had to travel for care feel bad emotionally, put their health at risk, and cost them a lot of money.

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This state has some of the strictest rules about abortion in the whole country. Anyone who performs an abortion can be charged with a felony and face two to five years in jail. People who have abortions after six weeks of pregnancy can be sued by private citizens. There are no exceptions to the rules for pregnancies where the fetus has problems that will kill it.

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Rebecca Vincen-Brown, the plaintiff, drove to Portland, Oregon, for an abortion after being turned down in Idaho when she learned her fetus had severe problems. When she thought about what had happened, she said, "The trauma...was completely unnecessary and could have been 100% avoided."

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The case, which is similar to one that was filed in Texas before, could set a significant standard for U.S. abortion rights.

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