Court Rules Idaho Can Enforce Ban On Interstate Abortion Travel

A federal appeals court has ruled that Idaho can enforce its abortion travel ban, which prohibits minors from traveling out of state for abortions without parental consent.

The decision Monday by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a 2023 decision that had blocked the law on First Amendment grounds.

The law, signed last year by Gov. Brad Little (R), created a new felony called “abortion trafficking,” defined as when an “adult … with the intent to conceal an abortion from the parents or guardian of a pregnant, unemancipated minor, either procures an abortion … or obtains an abortion-inducing drug” for that minor. “Abortion trafficking” also involves “recruiting, harboring, or transporting” a pregnant minor for an abortion, the law states. Violations are punishable by two to five years in prison.

The law’s sweeping language criminalizes anyone transporting a pregnant minor without parental consent within Idaho to get any abortion care, even outside a clinic. It could apply to a grandmother driving a pregnant minor to the post office to pick up a package containing abortion medication, for example.

The court of appeals largely upheld the law, except for the language that prohibited “recruiting,” a vague term that was not defined within the law. The panel of judges found the recruiting provision is “unconstitutionally overbroad because it prohibits a substantial amount of protected expressive speech.”

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, a vocal opponent of abortion, called the ruling a “tremendous victory” in a press release.

“Idaho’s laws were passed specifically to protect the life of the unborn and the life of the mother,” Labrador said. “Trafficking a minor child for an abortion without parental consent puts both in grave danger, and we will not stop protecting life in Idaho.”

Idaho’s law is one of two in the country that prohibit minors from traveling out of state for abortion care. It was the first to be implemented after Roe v. Wade fell and is the only law of its kind that carries a felony punishment.

“This decision is devastating for young people in Idaho and the trusted adults who support them,” Rebecca Gibron, the CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai‘i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, said in a press release.

“Instead of protecting our youth, this law puts them in harm’s way,” she continued. “It forces minors in abusive households to disclose pregnancies, often with severe consequences, while also criminalizing those who would offer them help.”

Idaho is one of the most extreme anti-abortion states in the country. The state implemented a six-week ban with a private enforcement mechanism as soon as Roe fell, and Little signed a near-total abortion ban just a month later. Idaho went all the way to the Supreme Court to argue that women should not be able to access abortion care during a medical emergency, claiming that Idaho’s abortion ban overrides federal law that requires most hospitals to offer abortion care if necessary to stabilize the health of a pregnant patient.

Read the Ninth Circuit Court’s decision below: