CONNECTICUT, USA — Attorney General William Tong is joining 20 other attorneys general in challenging an Idaho law that makes it a crime for adults to help minors travel out of state for abortion care.
The amicus brief by the attorneys general urges the Idaho court to block the law immediately.
Tong called the abortion ban "draconian" and said that the law was a "blatantly unconstitutional overreach" with dire consequences for the health and safety of Idaho patients.
"These kinds of extremist laws are precisely why Connecticut passed the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act and why we will continue to fight on every front to protect access to safe, legal abortion,” said Tong.
The attorneys general argue that Idaho's law endangers minors from Idaho, and it also punishes other states' medical providers and residents for helping them access lawful abortion care outside of Idaho's borders.
“This cannot be reconciled with Supreme Court precedent, under which States cannot prevent their residents from accessing abortion care in other states where it is legal — much less from even accessing information about such lawful care,” the brief asserts.
Further, the attorneys general argue Idaho should not be allowed to criminalize legal conduct in other states.
Connecticut's laws protect people who are seeking abortion care from other states and also protect the doctors and medical providers as well for providing that care.
Idaho's abortion laws are some of the most restrictive in the country, according to Tong. That restriction has thus resulted in a "significant increase" in patients coming from Idaho to other states for care.
Tong cites Washington state clinics reporting an unprecedented 75% increase in Idaho patients between January 2022 and early 2023.
This challenge is not the first time Connecticut has weighed in on Idaho's abortion laws. In August 2022, the state joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general led by California and New York to file a friend of the court brief. That brief supported the U.S. Department of Justice's law challenging another of Idaho's restrictive laws.
The brief, led by Washington, is joined by Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C.
Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jglatz@fox61.com.
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