(Washington) A US federal judge on Wednesday blocked part of the law banning almost all abortions in Idaho, a victory for the Biden administration.
Posted yesterday at 10:28 p.m.
The state will not be able to prosecute doctors who perform voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) to protect the health of the woman, decided the judge B. Lynn Winmill.
This suspension will continue until the end of a legal action challenging the ban on abortion, he added.
Idaho, a rural and conservative state in the American West, was among the first to adopt a new law after the U.S. Supreme Court’s flip-flop on the right to abortion in late June .
The text, which remains very restrictive, will come into force on Thursday.
Attorney General Merrick Garland had asked the court to block the law, saying it violated a federal law on medical emergencies because it did not provide an exception in the event of “serious danger to the health” of the pregnant woman and authorized legal action against doctors.
In his decision, Judge B. Lynn Winmill pointed out that this case “does not address the outdated constitutional right to abortion.”
“This court does not have to decide this larger, deeper question,” he wrote.
“But the court is called upon to resolve a much more modest issue, namely whether Idaho’s abortion law conflicts with a small but important piece of federal legislation. It is,” Mr. Winmill continued.
Even if it is limited to a specific point, the decision constitutes a success – although relative – for the administration of Joe Biden.
It “helps ensure that women in Idaho will receive the emergency medical care to which they are entitled under federal law,” Minister Merrick Garland said in a statement on Wednesday.
A dozen states have already banned abortions on their soil and, eventually, half of the 50 states should do so.