By Ruth Brown, Idaho Reports 

Fourth Judicial District Judge Jason Scott heard opening arguments and testimony Tuesday in a bench trial that’s challenging Idaho’s near total abortion ban. The plaintiffs include four women who sought out-of-state abortions for their wanted pregnancies.  

Led by attorney Gail Deady, the plaintiffs are asking the court to find that abortion should be legal in Idaho if a mother’s health is in danger, not just her life.  

In opening statements, Deady said they are asking the court to declare the law unconstitutional for certain patients – those with preexisting conditions that cannot be treated during pregnancy, pregnancies that endanger the mother’s life, and pregnancies with lethal fetal diagnoses. 

Deady argued that the state of Idaho has taken the stance that fetal lives are more valuable than a mother’s life. She pointed to the section of the Constitution which grants the right to secure safety and pursue happiness.  

“The lives of women and pregnant people are worthy of protection, and that is the bare minimum,” she said.  

Deputy Attorney General James Craig argued that the killing of an “unborn child” is illegal in Idaho, and the plaintiffs are asking the court to rewrite the law, which isn’t the judiciary’s place. He proceeded to offer hypothetical scenarios to drive home his point, such as a woman having an abortion to alleviate nausea, or having the right to an abortion if she stepped on rusty nail rather than just getting a tetanus shot. 

Craig called abortions “barbaric and gruesome.” 

“Abortion laws prevent unborn children from being exposed to pain,” he said. 

One after another on Tuesday, four women told the stories after their complicated pregnancies, sharing stories of fetal anomalies and doctors telling them that their babies wouldn’t live after birth. They talked about the conversations they had with their spouses, and hard decisions to terminate their wanted pregnancies. They also shared being told they needed to leave the state to do so, no matter how dire the fetus’s health appeared to be. 

Jennifer Adkins of Caldwell was told her fetus had a fatal condition at 12 weeks of pregnancy, but because the baby still had a heartbeat, she could not receive an abortion in Idaho. Her doctors told her that she was at risk of preeclampsia or hemorrhaging, so she and her husband decided to drive to Oregon to pursue an abortion. 

“It felt like the most compassionate decision we could make for our baby,” Adkins said. 

Jillaine St. Michel said she was “ecstatic” when she learned she was pregnant. But at her 20-week ultrasound she learned the fetus had severe anomalies in every major organ system – and because the baby still had a heartbeat, physicians were unable to terminate the pregnancy. She and her husband chose to drive out of state for the procedure. 

“It was the worst four days of my life, knowing that I was carrying a pregnancy that was doomed,” St. Michel said about the time between the diagnosis and the abortion.  

Kayla Smith’s first pregnancy was complicated, and she had severe preeclampsia. When she became pregnant for a second time, she learned that the fetus had severe heart defects that were inoperable. She sought an induction at a hospital in Washington because she knew after meeting with an Idaho pediatric cardiologist that her son wouldn’t live. When she was pregnant for a third time in Idaho, Smith said, she was “petrified” and has since moved to Washington.  

Rebecca Vincen-Brown had a very complicated second pregnancy in which they learned her baby was not appropriately developing. She was told by doctors she was at risk of hemorrhaging or threatening her fertility in the future if she didn’t act. She and her husband decided to terminate the pregnancy.  

“We made the decision because, based on the genetics and ultrasound, there was no viable baby that was going to come out of this pregnancy,” Vincen-Brown said.  

Vincen-Brown tearfully told the court that she went into labor at the hotel in Portland after pursuing a termination and her cervix had been dilated. She delivered the deceased baby in the hotel bathroom. 

Craig objected multiple times to the women’s testimony about conversations they had with doctors. 

Dr. Emily Corrigan, an OB-GYN at Saint Alphonsus, offered testimony about how the laws impacted her medical care.  

“I seriously questioned whether I could continue practicing medicine in Idaho,” Corrigan said.  

Corrigan testified that she does not understand what qualifies for the medical exceptions under the law, and there is confusion among medical practitioners. She testified that the state’s abortion ban forces physicians to violate their ethical duties.  

The plaintiffs’ attorneys used Corrigan for expert testimony on abortions and the standard of care. She outlined a variety of medical conditions women could face while pregnant and an abortion may be medically recommended.

More testimony from physicians is expected as the trial continues Wednesday. 

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