In Idaho, meanwhile, it’s unclear whether two laws from the early 1970s that made it a felony to “knowingly assist” in an abortion or publish information about how to induce an abortion will run alongside the newer , almost entirely of the state. ban. The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. to overturn Roe v. Wade has advocates, prosecutors and residents in some states facing a legal quagmire created by decades of often conflicting anti-abortion laws. State politicians and lawyers are trying to determine which laws and ordinances are in effect. And abortion rights advocates who go to court to protect the right to terminate a pregnancy are fighting a battle on multiple fronts. Dr. Jill Gibson, medical director of Planned Parenthood Arizona, speaks with her staff Thursday in Tempe, Ariz. The organization stopped performing abortions immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling because it was concerned about a prior state law that made it a crime to perform or assist in abortions. (Matt York/The Associated Press) Attorneys in Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden’s office are going through all of the state’s abortion laws with a fine-tooth comb, Wasden spokesman Scott Graf said. “Following last week’s decision, part of our subsequent work is to now review Idaho’s existing abortion laws and examine them through a post-Roe legal lens,” Graf said. “This work has begun and will continue over the coming weeks.” In West Virginia, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit challenging an abortion ban that went on the books in 1882. The organization says the law conflicts with younger people and should therefore be overturned. “We will not stand idly by while this situation drags itself back to the 1800s,” the agency’s legal director, Lori Stark, said in a statement. “Every day uncertainty remains about the enforceability of this law is another day West Virginians are deprived of critical, life-saving health care.” WATCH: ‘Chaos’ as abortion providers scramble to figure out what’s legal:
Challenges to ‘trigger laws’ add confusion to abortion access in the US
After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Americans seeking information about what is legal in their state face confusion as advocates fight abortion “trigger laws.” In Wisconsin, Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the 173-year-old abortion ban, arguing that modern generations never consented to it. The 1849 law bans abortion in any case except to save the life of the pregnant woman — unlike laws since the mid-1980s that ban the procedure when a fetus is medically viable outside the womb intervention. Arizona GOP officials disagree on which abortion laws are enforceable. Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced Wednesday that a law banning all abortions is now enforceable, but Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has said a law he signed in March takes precedence over the 1901 ban. When the Idaho Legislature passed a “trigger law” in 2020 that would have automatically banned nearly all abortions 30 days after Roe came down, lawmakers took some steps to avoid conflict by making clear that the law would supersede other bans . Lawmakers put similar words in another ban passed earlier this year. Protesters march around the Arizona Capitol following the release of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, June 24, 2022, in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/The Associated Press) But they may have overlooked a few clauses in the decades-old charter. The 2020 enabling law specifically says that the person seeking an abortion cannot be charged with a crime, but focuses prosecution efforts on the abortion provider. That appears to override a 1973 law that makes it a felony for a person to have an abortion, but it’s unclear whether another section of the older law that makes it a felony to knowingly assist in an abortion could still be enforceable. “It’s hard to see how much of it survives, because of all the conflicts,” Twin Falls County District Attorney Grant Loebs said of the nearly three dozen anti-abortion laws on the books in Idaho. It gives abortion rights advocates a lot to juggle. Planned Parenthood is suing over both of Idaho’s newest laws. He asked the Idaho Supreme Court to hear arguments in both cases on the same day in early August, hoping to reach a decision before the enabling law takes effect.
