U.S Department of Justice Asks Federal Judge to Pause Abortion Ban in Idaho
The U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal judge this week to bar Idaho from enforcing its near-total abortion ban while a lawsuit pitting federal health care law against state anti-abortion legislation is underway.
Meanwhile, the Republican-led Idaho Legislature is asking for permission to intervene in the federal case, just as it has done in three other abortion-related lawsuits filed in state courts.
The complex legal maneuvering playing out in Idaho is becoming increasingly common in red states as the American landscape of reproductive care continues to feel the aftershocks from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning decades of abortion rights rulings. Judges in the neighboring states of Montana and Wyoming were weighing similar requests, with the Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday keeping three abortion laws on pause and the Wyoming judge expected to issue a ruling soon.
