BOISE, Idaho — Planned Parenthood has filed a lawsuit challenging an Idaho law that criminalizes abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, the third lawsuit the organization has filed over Idaho abortion laws in recent months.
Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky filed the petition with the Idaho Supreme Court on Monday. The petition asks the court to declare Idaho’s fetal heartbeat protection law illegal and unenforceable.
The law, which was passed last year, would make it illegal to perform an abortion after a so-called fetal heartbeat is detected, typically around six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they’re pregnant. Medical experts have said the heartbeat is more accurately described as electrical activity, because the structures of a human heart have not yet formed at six weeks’ gestation.
The Planned Parenthood petition argues that the Idaho law violates residents’ right to privacy, violates the Idaho Human Rights Act by treating men and women differently and violates the Idaho Constitution’s due process clause.
To go into effect, Idaho’s fetal heartbeat law requires that a similar heartbeat law must be upheld in a U.S. appellate court. Planned Parenthood said in its filing that it believes that trigger happened last week, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld a similar law in Georgia. The Idaho Statesman has reached out to Gov. Brad Little’s office to determine whether the decision triggered Idaho’s law.
The heartbeat law would be superseded by Idaho’s total abortion ban, which would make it a felony for medical professionals to perform abortions except in instances when the mother’s life is at risk, or in cases of rape or incest that are reported to law enforcement.
Last month, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit to block Idaho’s total abortion ban from going into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which established constitutional rights to an abortion.
The organization also sued over a law passed in March that would allow certain family members of a fetus to sue medical providers for at least $20,000 if they perform an abortion after a so-called fetal heartbeat is detected.
The Idaho Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on both previous lawsuits on Aug. 3. Planned Parenthood asked in its Monday filing to add the most recent lawsuit to next week’s hearings.
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