Idaho Supreme Court allows abortion ban to take effect

The Idaho Supreme Court ruled that the state's stringent abortion restrictions will be allowed to take effect as legal challenges to the laws play out in court. 

A Planned Parenthood affiliate and a doctor filed a lawsuit earlier this year against three pro-life laws in Idaho.

The court's ruling on Friday means that the state's Total Abortion Ban will go into effect as planned on August 25. The law contains exceptions for rape, incest and a threat to a mother's life.

The court also lifted an order that blocked Idaho's ban on abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy, which will be enforced through private lawsuits, making the law effective immediately.

Planned Parenthood and the doctor were unable to show that they were likely to win the case nor demonstrate "a 'very clear' right that will be irreparably injured" if the court does not stop the anti-abortion laws from taking effect, the judges stated.

The Idaho Supreme Court wrote that the "Petitioners have not demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on the merits or a clear right to relief, which is necessary to establish an entitlement to preliminary relief."

The Department of Justice also sued Idaho over its abortion restrictions earlier this month, marking the Biden administration's first post-Roe federal lawsuit.