Planned Parenthood has filed a lawsuit in the Idaho Supreme Court to block the implementation of the state’s new Texas-style abortion ban, calling it an “unprecedented power grab.” (KBSX915)
“This law is a cruel overreach by politicians so intent on controlling the lives of their constituents that they’re willing to compromise our constitutional rights and compromise our health and safety, all in order to ban abortion,” said Rebecca Gibron, interim CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky., though a letter explaining his decision read more like a veto.
Little wrote he fears the civil enforcement mechanism in the bill will be proven “unconstitutional and unwise” “in short order.” “Deputizing private citizens to levy hefty monetary fines on the exercise of a disfavored but judicially recognized constitutional right for the purpose of evading court review undermines our constitutional form of government and weakens our collective liberties,” he wrote.
At issue is a legal term called standing. That’s where a person bringing a civil lawsuit must prove they have been, or will be, directly harmed by another party’s actions or a law that’s being challenged. States enforce laws passed by their respective legislatures, but the new Idaho law passes that responsibility off to its residents. It explicitly forbids state officials and prosecutors from getting involved with these civil cases.