Trump DOJ moves to dismiss Biden-era case against Idaho's total ban on abortions

The Trump administration’s Department of Justice is reportedly dropping an abortion case against the state of Idaho that began under the Biden administration over cases of abortion in a medical emergency. This came one day ahead of a major hearing in the case.

Idaho passed a law that banned all abortions except in cases where mother’s life is in danger or cases of rape and incest. In response, the Biden administraion sued the state, saying that the law doesn’t allow for abortions to "protect the health of the pregnant patient." After Trump took office and in advance of a hearing, the Department of Justice moved to drop the case it had inherited from the Biden administration. This would allow the Idaho law to be implemented after it has been held up in the courts.

St. Luke's, a Boise hospital network, wrote in a Tuesday court filing that the DOJ had told them it is moving to dismiss the case, Politico reported. The hospital sued the state in January because it reportedly expected the Trump administration to drop out of the case.

"At 1:37 MT on Monday, March 3, counsel for St. Luke’s received an email from counsel for the United States stating: 'As a courtesy, I wanted to let you know that a few minutes ago I reached out to counsel for the State of Idaho and the Idaho Legislature, informing them that the United States would like to dismiss its claims in the above case, without prejudice, pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(A)(ii), which requires "a stipulation of dismissal signed by all parties who have appeared. I stated that, if possible, the United States would like to file the Stipulation of Dismissal on Wednesday, March 5, 2025,'" the filing stated.

St. Luke's requested that a temporary restraining order be granted ahead of the scheduled hearing to keep such abortions legal as the court deliberates the case. Idaho US District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill granted the temporary restraining order on Tuesday night.

Lawyers for the hospital wrote in their filing, "Even a short period without an injunction would require Idaho hospitals to train their staff about the change in legal obligations, distracting them from providing medical care to their patients, and would once again require them to airlift patients out of state should a medical emergency arise so that those patients can consider the full spectrum of medically indicated care, including termination of pregnancy. A TRO is necessary to avoid that harm to patients and their families as well as to St. Luke’s and its staff."

In his order, Judge Winmill wrote that state Attorney General Raul Labrador and his office are not allowed to prosecute medical providers who issue abortions for patients having medical emergencies for now.

The Biden administration’s lawsuit against the state argued that Idaho’s enforcement of its abortion ban during medical emergencies violated patient protections established during the Reagan era known as Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). The case wound up in the Supreme Court in 2024, with the justices handing the case back down to lower court judges and saying that they had taken up the issue prematurely.

The Biden Department of Justice in August 2022 announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Idaho, claiming that it’s law "imposes a near-total ban on abortion," and that under EMTALA, hospitals that receive federal Medicare funds must provide necessary stabilizing treatment who arrive experiencing medical emergencies at emergency departments, including if it is determined by doctors that an abortion is required.

The Biden DOJ claimed that Idaho’s law "provides no defense for an abortion necessary to protect the health of the pregnant patient." Under Idaho’s abortion law, exemptions are provided for cases where the pregnancy would result in the death of the mother, and in cases of rape or incest. 

The law went into effect in August 2022, but has been blocked by a preliminary order from a federal court from being enforced, per Reuters.