CNN
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President Donald Trump’s administration took a major step Wednesday in support of states with sweeping abortion bans, dropping a Biden-era lawsuit against Idaho that sought to protect abortion access in medical emergencies.
The Biden administration had prevailed in early stages of the lawsuit challenging Idaho’s extremely strict abortion restrictions, with the Supreme Court last year leaving in place a temporary court order that allows Idaho hospitals to provide abortion when a pregnancy endangers a woman’s life or health.
In a court filing Wednesday, the Justice Department said it was now dropping the lawsuit.
The move will not change the immediate status quo for emergency abortion access in the state. Idaho’s largest hospital system, the St. Luke’s hospital system, brought its own lawsuit earlier this year challenging the state abortion ban and on Tuesday, secured a temporary restraining order in its case preserving access to emergency abortions in the state.
But how higher courts will view that lawsuit is not clear, and even the conservative Supreme Court justices who sided with the Biden administration in its case last year signaled they could change their mind once more of the litigation played out.
The Justice Department’s dismissal of the case could also encourage other states to expand their abortion restrictions.
Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, who was defending the law, said in a statement that his office was “grateful that meddlesome DOJ litigation on this issue will no longer be an obstacle to Idaho enforcing its laws.”
CNN has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
On the campaign trail, Trump was vague about his intentions for a national abortion policy and his team did not respond to multiple inquiries from CNN at the time about how his administration would handle the Idaho case. His representatives instead echoed his broad promise to leave abortion policy to the states.
Idaho is one of a dozen states that ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy but an outlier in how narrow its exemption is. The state allows for abortions when a woman’s life is at risk, but not when a pregnancy poses complications to her health and bodily functions that stop short of being life threatening.
When that version of the law was in effect, patients were airlifted out of Idaho to receive abortions. Doctors said in court filings that the risk of criminal prosecution made emergency treatment decisions difficult to make.
Reproductive rights groups blasted the Trump Justice Department’s maneuver to dismiss the lawsuit.
In a statement, Nancy Northup, the president and CEO of Center for Reproductive Rights, called it “indefensible” and “a dramatic change in government policy.”
“President Trump talks about ‘protecting women’ in sports and in locker rooms, meanwhile he’d let them go septic in the ER,” she said.
Anti-abortion activists praised the move, with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America saying in a statement that “Biden’s weaponization of the federal government is over – no more lawfare.”
“The will of the people is clear and activist judges must not interfere,” the statement from the group’s director of legal affairs Katie Daniel said.
A hearing in the lawsuit brought by St. Luke’s hospital system is scheduled for Wednesday.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
