First Amendment Likely Protects Referring Patients for Out-of-State Abortions
Planned Parenthood Great Nw. v. Labrador, decided today by Judge William Fletcher, joined by Judges Kim McLane Wardlaw, blocks Idaho—which generally bans abortions—from punishing doctors who “‘refer[]’ a patient ‘across state lines to an abortion provider'” (presumably for an abortion that is legal in the other state):
Despite ample opportunity to do so, the [Idaho] Attorney General has not contested in our court the merits of the preliminary injunction. On appeal, he has relied only on [certain] jurisdictional challenges [see the full opinion for more on those challenges -EV] …. We take the failure to object on the merits to the district court’s preliminary injunction as a concession by the Attorney General that the district court was correct in granting the injunction. But we will not permit the Attorney General, through the tactic of failing to argue the merits of his appeal of the preliminary injunction, to a
Article from Reason.com
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