The Idaho Supreme Court temporarily blocked implementation of an abortion law modeled on Texas’s bill banning abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
The court granted the stay in response to a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood. The organization operates three of the four abortion providers based in the state, according to the Idaho Statesman.
The temporary stay means that Idaho’s abortion law will not go into effect as scheduled on April 22, as both sides prepare for expected arguments. The Supreme Court must rule on the lawsuit before the bill can take effect.
The Planned Parenthood branch covering the northwestern U.S. sued the state after Idaho governor Brad Little, a Republican, signed the bill.
The law allows family members of a “preborn child” to sue abortion providers for at least $20,000 if an abortion is performed when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, or at around the sixth week of pregnancy. While the law provides exemptions in the case of rape or incest, a woman seeking an abortion would be required file a police report in order to obtain an exemption.
Little signed the law on March 23, writing in a letter to the state senate president that “I stand in solidarity with all Idahoans who seek to protect the lives of preborn babies.” However, Little also expressed concerns that the law’s enforcement mechanism could be unconstitutional.
“I am particularly concerned for those vulnerable women and children who lack the capacity or familial support to report incest and sexual assault,” Little added at the time.
The law passed Idaho’s state house 51-14 and the state senate 28-6.
Texas’s fetal-heartbeat bill took effect in September 2021 after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to act on emergency requests to stay the law. That legislation allows any resident to sue anyone who helps perform an abortion in Texas, barring the pregnant woman herself.