Idaho abortion ban likely won’t be triggered until August. Here’s why
An Idaho trigger law banning nearly all instances of abortion is set to go into effect 30 days after a U.S. Supreme Court judgment returns abortion rights to state oversight. But despite the court’s decision Friday to overturn landmark abortion rights cases, Idaho’s trigger law likely won’t go into effect until sometime in August, according to Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s office and the state attorney general’s office.
Idaho code 18-622 — which will make it a felony for health care providers to perform abortions except in cases of documented incest, rape or threat to the life of the pregnant woman — goes into effect 30 days after “the issuance of the judgment in any decision” returning abortion decision-making to states. But the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey is not a final judgment, meaning Idaho likely won’t outlaw abortion by July 24.
The Friday decision is what’s known as a “slip” opinion, a preliminary version of the final judgment that’s subject to review and edits. The court will need to issue a final mandate to put its decision into action, which typically occurs within 25 to 30 days of the issuance of the slip opinion. The mandate is what will trigger Idaho’s law, said Kriss Bivens Cloyd, a spokesperson for the Idaho attorney general’s office, in an email.
From there, it will take 30 days for the trigger law to go into effect. That means Idaho’s abortion ban may not go into effect until Aug. 23.
