BOISE, Idaho — With the news that the U.S. Supreme Court had dismissed an Idaho case, sending it back down to an appeals court, a hesitant sort of optimism spread through Idaho's medical community.
"A bit of breathing room," said Peg Dougherty, chief attorney for St. Luke's Hospital system.
The high court's decision allows emergency abortions to protect the health of a pregnant person, not just to prevent death as currently written under Idaho's current law. Though that could change again when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals takes up the issue again.
For now, Idaho's pro-life lawmakers like Attorney General Raul Labrador are marking it as a small victory.
"Today, the court said that Idaho will be able to enforce its law to save lives in the vast majority of circumstances, while the case proceeds," Labrador said Thursday morning.
Though some pro-choice advocates and health care professionals are also viewing this as a small win, at least
"Physicians are going to feel confident they can make the recommendations to their patients knowing the next sentence isn't going to be, 'We'll have to transfer you,'" Dougherty said.
Dougherty said St. Luke's, the state's largest hospital system, had airlifted six patients to other states to receive maternal/fetal medical care between January and April; Thursday she said that number hadn't grown in the last two months.
Labrador, back in April, voiced suspicion that it was a fear-mongering misinformation tactic, saying he'd spoken to ER doctors who had never heard of pregnant patients being helicoptered across borders.
Thursday Labrador again called some of the confusion over the state's near-total abortion ban misinformation.
"There is a pro-abortion agenda that is trying to confuse doctors and make them scared of what our law says when our law is really clear," he said.
Labrador says he's been meeting with physicians to clear up fears of prosecution. Though some physicians and medical professionals who spoke during a virtual panel Thursday say those fears come directly from ambiguities in Idaho's law.
"What our physicians and our patients are very concerned about is those situations in which a pregnant woman's health is in jeopardy. She is on a track to lose her fertility or major bodily function and that is not clear in the law," said Susie Keller, CEO of the Idaho Medical Association.
Dr. Duncan Harmon, a maternal/fetal medicine specialist for St. Luke's, said there are many instances outside an emergency room, like in a clinical setting, where termination would be a care option that could prevent or remedy serious pregnancy complications. He points to PPROM, or premature rupture of the amniotic sac, which can lead to infections or other complications, as one such example where an abortion couldn't be offered in Idaho unless a woman's life was in imminent danger.
"Those are patients [where] we as clinicians must explain to them even in the lifting of the stay we cannot provide them evidence-based care in this state," Dr. Harmon said. "That's where the fear as a clinician exists, of criminal prosecution or losing medical license."
Determining whether a pregnancy complication may result in death, and how soon, is a subjective judgment call that has some doctors like Harmon feeling like they're juggling legality over a patient's best interests.
It's also unclear if Thursday's ruling will be enough to stop the bleeding: Keller says Idaho has lost 22% of its OB-GYNs since the law went into effect.
"Two of my colleagues left simply because of the change in the trigger ban," Dr. Harmon said. "Prior to the stay, another colleague left."
As the legal battle rages on with no end date in sight.
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