The case could shape how far federal courts may go in creating exceptions to state protections for the unborn.
Editor's note: As of August 26, 2026: "Following a motion by Labrador objecting to a "universal injunction", Judge Winmill scaled back his order. The modified injunction stipulates that only Dr. Seyb is protected from criminal prosecution if he performs abortions to preserve a patient's physical or mental health. All other doctors in Idaho remain bound by the state's strict ban while the broader appeal plays out in the Ninth Circuit," according to the Idaho Capital Sun.
(Zeale) Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys are asking a federal appeals court to block what they describe as the first ruling since Dobbs to recognize a federal constitutional “right” to abortion.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, serving alongside ADF attorneys, filed an emergency motion Aug. 26 asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to temporarily block the ruling while the state appeals. The attorneys said U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill, who issued the ruling, had become the first federal judge since Dobbs to “re-constitutionalize abortion.”
Tweet This: ADF attorneys said U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill is the first federal judge since Dobbs to “re-constitutionalize abortion.”
Winmill ruled Aug. 13 that the 14th Amendment establishes a “narrow but fundamental right to abortion when a pregnancy threatens the woman’s life or health.” Under the ruling, Dr. Stacy Seyb, an Idaho maternal-fetal medicine specialist who brought the case, may perform an abortion based on his “good faith medical judgment” that continuing the pregnancy presents more than a negligible risk of serious, lasting harm to a woman’s health.
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In an Aug. 27 press release from ADF, Senior Counsel John Bursch, stressed the importance of protecting human life.
“States have the strongest possible interest in protecting the most fundamental of our human rights — the right to life,” he said. “Nothing in the federal Constitution grants a right to take innocent, unborn life.”
Tweet This: Nothing in the federal Constitution grants a right to take innocent, unborn life.
Seyb filed the lawsuit May 14, 2024, on behalf of himself and his patients, alleging that Idaho’s laws prevented him from performing abortions he considered medically necessary.
The dispute over physician discretion comes weeks after Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed a law removing gestational limits on abortion based on a physician’s “professional judgment.” Healey and supporters applauded the new law, which, as Zeale News previously reported, will allow preborn children to be killed up to the moment of birth. Numerous pro-life advocates and others have spoken out against the new law, warning that it puts innocent lives at stake.
Editor's note: This article was published by Zeale and is reprinted with permission.
