Appeals Court Pauses the Ruling That Required Idaho to Allow Abortions to Protect a Woman's Health

A federal appeals court on Friday paused a judge's ruling that Idaho's near-total ban on abortion is unconstitutional because it does not provide exceptions for cases where pregnancies pose risks to women's health, Reuters reported. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 decision that a doctor who sued over Idaho's abortion ban is unlikely to prevail on claims that the U.S. Constitution protects the right to a health-saving abortion.

The order lifts a federal judge's August ruling ordering Idaho to allow abortions in cases where a doctor deemed it necessary to protect the mother's health, pending the outcome of the state's appeal. That ruling was the first by a U.S. judge to recognize a constitutional right to abortion in certain circumstances since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, and it had blocked enforcement of two Idaho laws to the extent they prohibited doctors from providing abortion care to patients with serious medical conditions, including mental health conditions that can raise the risk of self-harm and suicide. The judge had subsequently limited the ruling to bar enforcement only against the plaintiff, Stacey Seyb, while the appeal proceeds.

In a concurring opinion, Circuit Judge Kim Wardlaw wrote that the 2022 Supreme Court decision means there is no right to an abortion in any specific circumstance, 'particularly one as vague and ill-defined as the right pressed here.' The court's order, which Wardlaw joined with Circuit Judge Consuelo Callahan, was unsigned. Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, a Republican, applauded the ruling in a statement: 'Idaho's unwavering protection for unborn children and their mothers will continue as intended,' he said.

Stephanie Toti, a lawyer for Seyb and the executive director of the legal nonprofit Lawyering Project, said the decision was only a temporary setback. 'We look forward to demonstrating to the appeals court that access to medically indicated abortion care is deeply rooted in our nation's history and tradition and essential to its scheme of ordered liberty,' Toti said in a statement. In dissent, Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon wrote that the 2022 decision dealt explicitly only with elective abortions, and warned: 'Some women with serious pregnancy complications will during the pendency of this appeal be required to continue their pregnancies at serious, permanent risk to their health.'

The ruling comes amid separate litigation over whether a federal emergency-care law requires hospitals to provide abortions to stabilize patients in some circumstances despite Idaho's ban. The Supreme Court in 2024 allowed such emergency abortions to resume without resolving that dispute, and the Trump administration later dropped the federal government's case. Friday's order decides nothing finally - it holds the August ruling in abeyance while the appeal is heard - but for the duration of that appeal, Idaho's ban stands without the health exception the lower court had ordered.