A district judge in Boise, Idaho, issued a ruling on Aug. 13 that loosened the state’s near-total ban on abortion.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill said Idaho’s laws, the Defense of Life Act and Fetal Heartbeat Act, unconstitutionally provide exceptions for abortions when they are life-saving and for some instances of sexual assault but not broader health risks, including long-term effects, self-harm, and suicide.
Winmill said his decision is not “an attempt to relitigate” the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which returned power to the states to regulate abortions by overturning the high court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion….