Suit against Idaho’s abortion travel ban shows it’s vague, punitive and ineffective | Opinion

A challenge filed to Idaho’s abortion travel ban today lays bare the many ways in which the law is so poorly written that it could criminalize a vast array of conduct and make it difficult or impossible to counsel minors facing an unwanted pregnancy.

The law, passed earlier this year, makes it illegal to help a minor obtain an abortion out of state by “recruiting, harboring, or transporting” them with an “intent to conceal” it from the minor’s parents.

The law calls this “abortion trafficking,” which trivialized actual human trafficking — a practice that has become ubiquitous on the far-right, as they regularly lob the epithet “groomer” at every librarian and teacher within spitting distance.

But the lawsuit argues that it’s entirely unclear what kind of conduct would constitute felony “abortion trafficking,” meaning no conduct is clearly legal.

Is it illegal to privately inform a minor that abortion is legal in another state? To point them to a website where abortion-inducing drugs can be ordered? To drive them to the state border? Would just meeting with them privately to discuss it constitute “harboring” or “recruiting” — two of the undefined ways in which someone can violate the travel ban.

“The statute is unconstitutional,” the suit alleges. “It is poorly written. It is vague and unclear in the conduct it prohibits.”

The suit is being launched by public interest litigators Legal Voice, the Oregon law firm Stoel Rives and the Lawyering Project. Their plaintiffs include Lourdes Matsumoto, a Nampa attorney who works with victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, the Northwest Abortion Access Fund and the Indigenous Idaho Alliance. All say they worry that the vague law could put them at risk of prosecution.

Most glaringly, the law puts those who help victims of parental abuse at risk.

“Ignoring that some of the minors may seek an abortion because they were sexually abused by a parent or guardian, that they have consulted with trusted adults who support their position, or that they are actual victims of human trafficking, they instead seek to stop pregnant minors from crossing state lines to receive abortion health care,” the suit argues.

And that’s only one of the myriad reasons minors might choose to go somewhere other than their parents to get help.

“Although many minors faced with an unintended pregnancy choose to involve their parents, many do not,” the suit argues. “There are minors who can’t or do not have access to their parents. There are minors who are afraid to anger or disappoint their parents as well as those who face the threat of violence in their homes.”

All of this mess highlights a real, deep moral failure on the part of many conservatives in the Idaho Legislature: They care more about being seen crusading against abortion by proposing harsh laws than they do about reducing the number of abortions that happen.

Because Idaho’s punitive abortion regime isn’t working.

As columnist Danny Westneat of the Seattle Times recently noted, a trove of data from abortion providers surrounding Idaho show that out-of-state abortions have surged since Idaho’s abortion ban went into effect. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, there have been about 1,200 fewer abortions in Idaho. And 1,500 extra in Washington, 1,300 extra in Oregon and 2,600 extra in Nevada.

“You can’t say categorically that the Idaho ban hasn’t stopped a single abortion,” Westneat wrote. “But the data suggests that is essentially the case — that the whole thing is a burden, cost and danger to Idaho’s own women, but hasn’t met the anti-abortion goals that supposedly informed it.”

Lawmakers could be working on programs that reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies — better sex education, easier availability of contraceptives, etc. The plaintiffs in this lawsuit might well be their allies, and such policies might actually reduce the number of abortions that take place.

But it’s not as easy to put on a mailer next to “vote for me.”

Bryan Clark is an opinion writer for the Idaho Statesman based in eastern Idaho.