The Idaho Legislature has passed a ban on abortions at six weeks that would allow the patient or family to sue providers of the procedure, an enforcement mechanism resembling the one used in a similar Texas law.
The bill passed out of the Idaho House on Monday by a vote of 51-14. It would open the door for an abortion provider to be sued by a patient, the unborn child’s father, grandparents, siblings, aunts, or uncles up to four years after the abortion is performed or attempted. It already passed in the Senate earlier this month. With the bill, Idaho would become the first state to copy parts of a similarly restrictive Texas law that has banned most abortions.
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Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, has not commented publicly on whether he plans to sign the bill, but he has voiced his opposition to abortion in general in the past. The law could be put into effect as soon as April. Little has signed a similar ban on abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected, suggesting this bill will go no differently. The previous heartbeat bill, though, would only go into effect if the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that guarantees the right to an abortion up until the fetus can live outside of the womb, usually at 22 to 24 weeks.
The Texas law, S.B. 8, deputizes private citizens to bring civil lawsuits against anyone aside from the mother who they believe has aided and abetted in the procurement of an abortion. The law has survived early litigation.
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The Supreme Court is due to decide whether to uphold legal access to abortions in June with the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which poses whether states can ban abortion before the point of viability. Republican-majority states have been emboldened by signals the court will issue a death blow to legal abortion access this summer and have already begun crafting their own abortion bans. Florida, for instance, is on the precipice of passing a law that will shorten the deadline for legal abortion from 24 weeks to 15 weeks and would only allow for exceptions in the cases of fetal abnormalities or extreme danger to the life of the mother.
