Idaho educators filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho on Tuesday saying that the state's anti-abortion statute, one of the strictest in the country, violates their First Amendment rights by prohibiting discussion about pro-abortion views in the classroom.
Six university professors and two teachers unions in the Gem State are challenging the 2021 No Public Funds for Abortion Act that bans public employees from promoting abortion or referring a patient for abortion services.
UP FOR DEBATE: TRUMP, DESANTIS, AND OTHER 2024 GOP HOPEFULS' STANCE ON THE IMPEACHMENT OF JOE BIDEN
The law explicitly states that "no part of any tuition or fees paid to a public institution of higher education shall be used in any way" to promote or fund abortion treatment or to train healthcare providers to perform the controversial procedure.
A different section of the law also pertains to public school districts but has exceptions for when an elective abortion must be performed if the pregnancy physically endangers the life of the mother.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho, representing the plaintiffs in the case, argues that the law "has shut down academic inquiry about abortion — one of today’s most urgent social, moral, and political issues — across university classrooms and campuses in the state."
"To avoid jail time as well as ruinous fines and other penalties, professors across academic disciplines have been forced to strip abortion-related content from their curricula, instruction, and scholarship or risk their livelihoods," the ACLU says.
It’s vital for Idaho’s public universities to have autonomy in fostering vibrant debate on their campuses, free from government interference. Idaho’s abortion censorship law directly undermines that autonomy. #idpol #idleg https://t.co/HXLpjQE2O4
— ACLU of Idaho (@acluidaho) August 8, 2023
Blaine Conzatti, president of the Idaho Family Policy Center, said in a press statement that the lawsuit is a "baseless legal challenge."
“The ‘No Public Funds For Abortion Act’ simply does not infringe on academic speech protected by the First Amendment," Conzatti said, "including classroom discussion on the topics related to abortion."
Conzatti, who helped write the NPFAA legislation, also drafted an amendment to the bill that would have explicitly allowed for classroom discussion. Ultimately the amendment did not go through, but Conzatti maintains that it would not have changed the legitimate interpretation of the legislation.
A federal judge last week blocked a statute that would have allowed Attorney General Raul Labrador to prosecute doctors who made out-of-state referrals for abortion procedures, saying that doing so violates free speech concerns.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In January, the Idaho Supreme Court upheld the state's near-total abortion ban that was passed as a trigger law in 2020 and went into effect in August 2022 after the federal Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Abortion in Idaho is legal in the cases of rape and incest as well as to protect the life of the mother, but must be performed either in a hospital or a clinic with hospital admitting privileges.