Idaho pro-lifers score court win as judge scales back abortion ruling

Idaho’s restrictions on abortion once again apply to nearly all doctors in the state after a federal judge scaled back a ruling giving physicians greater discretion to perform abortions, according to an Aug. 28 report from Seattle Red.

On Aug. 25, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill limited his earlier ruling to apply only to Dr. Stacy Seyb, the Idaho physician who brought the case. The change allows the state to again enforce its abortion restrictions against all other doctors.

Winmill ruled Aug. 13 that Seyb may perform abortions when, in his “good faith medical judgment,” continuing a pregnancy poses a serious risk to a woman’s health, as Zeale News previously reported.

Idaho generally prohibits abortion from conception except in limited circumstances, including to prevent the mother’s death and in certain cases of reported rape or incest.

The latest decision comes as Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, alongside Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys, continues to challenge Winmill’s original Aug. 13 ruling before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, according to Seattle Red.

In an Aug. 27 press release, ADF Senior Counsel John Bursch emphasized the state’s interest in protecting unborn life.

“States have the strongest possible interest in protecting the most fundamental of our human rights — the right to life,” Bursch said. “Nothing in the federal Constitution grants a right to take innocent, unborn life.”