BOISE, Idaho — The Attorney General of Idaho, Raúl Labrador, recently filed a summary judgment that seeks to have a legal case challenging Idaho's abortion law, the Defense of Life Act, thrown out.
The lawsuit, which was brought by Dr. Stacy Seyb of the St. Luke's Health System, argues that despite the Supreme Court's repeal of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Constitution still protects abortions when medically necessary to protect the mother's health. Dr. Seyb is a maternal-fetal medicine specialist for St. Luke's.
As the current Idaho abortion laws are written, Seyb claims that mothers are subject to unnecessary medical risks due to the restrictive nature of the state's abortion law.
That law may prevent mothers from having an abortion before a stillbirth, when a miscarriage is inevitable, and in a variety of other medical instances.
In the summary judgment, Labrador says that Dr. Seyb contradicted himself via his own testimony before going on to claim that the physician "never understood Idaho’s law nor read the January 2023 Idaho Supreme Court decision clarifying the state’s abortion laws."
Labrador states that the Idaho Supreme Court nullified Seyb's claims when it modified legal language within the legal statute to allow doctors to utilize "good faith medical judgment” in cases where abortion may be necessary to protect the mother's health.
Labrador says, "“Dr. Seyb did not educate himself on what Idaho law permits, which is required of every doctor in Idaho."
The case, Seyb v. Members of the Idaho Board of Medicine, remains pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho.
