- Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador has asked a federal court to dismiss Dr. Stacy Seyb’s lawsuit challenging the state’s pro-life law.
- Labrador argues that Seyb cannot proceed with his challenge because he misunderstood Idaho’s law and failed to educate himself about its provisions.
- Idaho’s law allows abortions when a doctor, in good faith, believes it is necessary to prevent the woman’s death.
- Labrador said Seyb’s patients were affected by his lack of understanding, not the law itself, and thus asked the court to dismiss the physician’s challenge.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador last week asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit that a maternal fetal medicine specialist brought against the state’s pro-life law, saying that the physician did not correctly understand the law he is challenging.
According to a press release from his office, Labrador, a Republican, argues that Dr. Stacy Seyb’s claim that the law is unconstitutional is undermined by the fact that the physician did not understand Idaho’s abortion regulations or make an effort to do so.
Not realizing that Idaho’s law allows abortions in certain circumstances, Seyb had referred patients out of state to obtain abortions. He also sued the Idaho Board of Medicine, claiming that the law unconstitutionally limited physicians’ abilities to care for their patients.
Labrador explained the law in the release, saying that abortions are permitted “when the doctor, in good faith medical judgment, believes an abortion is necessary to prevent the woman’s death — without requiring certainty or imminence.”
Labrador said that Seyb has testified that he neither understood the law nor read Idaho Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in an abortion case, which clarified when doctors may perform abortions. Seyb has also said that his health system, St. Luke’s, did not provide him with training on the law.
“Dr. Seyb did not educate himself on what Idaho law permits, which is required of every doctor in Idaho,” Labrador stated in the release. “His patients suffered from his lack of understanding, not because of our laws.”
The attorney general further explained the case in a letter published to his website Oct. 27, saying that “Idaho’s laws were crafted with compassion, clarity, and support for both mothers and their unborn children.”
“Our laws work in harmony to protect life while allowing physicians to make good faith medical decisions,” he continued. “Physicians have broad clinical judgment under Idaho law. They always have. But that judgment can only be exercised if they take the time to understand what the law permits.”
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