BOISE, ID – In a decision released today from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Matsumoto v. Labrador, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador defended Idaho’s abortion trafficking laws against a lower court injunction. The 9th Circuit panel affirmed in part and reversed in part the district court’s order preliminarily enjoining Idaho’s abortion trafficking statute, Idaho Code § 18-623, and remanded for further proceedings. (Read court documents below).
“Section 18-623 defines the crime of “abortion trafficking” as procuring an abortion or obtaining an abortion-inducing drug for an unemancipated minor by “recruiting, harboring, or transporting” a pregnant minor with the intent to conceal the abortion from the minor’s parents or guardian, court documents say, adding that the panel “affirmed the district court’s order preliminarily enjoining the Idaho attorney general from enforcing the “recruiting” prong of Section 18-623. Because Challengers are unlikely to succeed on the merits of their remaining claims, the panel reversed the district court with respect to those claims and remanded to the district court to modify the preliminary injunction.”
“This is a tremendous victory for Idaho and defending the rule of law as written by the people’s representatives,” Labrador says. “Idaho’s laws were passed specifically to protect the life of the unborn and the life of the mother. Trafficking a minor child for an abortion without parental consent puts both in grave danger, and we will not stop protecting life in Idaho.”
While the 9th Circuit panel ruled that plaintiffs have proper standing in the case and that the specific language of “recruiting” minors for abortion is overly broad, the Court ruled the balance of the statute addressing “harboring and transporting” minors can be enforced.
You can read the decision and see court documents at the following:
