Planned Parenthood is suing to force Idaho to allow nurses and midwives to abort unborn babies.
The abortion giant and Legal Voice filed the lawsuit Dec. 14, challenging a state law that requires that abortions be performed by doctors, the Post Falls Press reports.
Idaho is not unusual. Currently, 42 states require that a licensed physician perform abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Abortion activists even acknowledged that these laws were passed to protect women’s health.
However, they now claim that the Idaho law is unconstitutional because it unnecessarily restricts women’s access to abortion. Citing research by pro-abortion activists, their lawsuit argues that nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants can “safely and effectively” perform abortions, according to the report.
The lawsuit is a new strategy of the abortion industry, which is hurting for doctors willing to abort unborn babies. There are similar lawsuits challenging laws in Maine and Montana.
Here’s more from the report:
Under the current law, women often have to travel long distances within a narrow window of time in order to receive an abortion, [Kim Clark, a senior attorney with Legal Voice] and others behind the lawsuit say.
There are five abortion-providing facilities in Idaho, including three Planned Parenthood clinics in Twin Falls, Boise and Meridian. A shortage of physicians in Idaho, particularly in rural areas, exacerbates accessibility-related challenges, the lawsuit’s plaintiffs say.
If the statute were changed to let advanced practice clinicians perform abortions, the lawsuit’s plaintiffs say, existing clinics could offer abortion services more days a week, with the potential for additional new clinics to open. Ninety-five percent of Idaho counties do not have a clinic that provides abortions, with 68 percent of Idaho women living in those counties, according to data from 2014.
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In 2015, California passed a law allowing non-doctors to abort unborn babies. The new law has put countless women and their unborn babies in jeopardy. One study found that abortions done by non-physicians were twice as likely to have complications as those done by licensed physicians.
This new matter is a way the abortion industry hopes to prop up its life-destroying business. Abortion rates are dropping and abortion clinics have been closing partly because fewer doctors are willing to abort unborn babies.
In a similar vein, the abortion industry also has been fighting against conscience protections for medical professionals who oppose abortions.
According to Guttmacher, in 1982, there were 2,918 abortion doctors practicing in America, but by 2011, there were only 1,720.
A number of abortion clinics closed in the past few years because abortionists retired and no one was willing to take their places, according to a 2016 Bloomberg study.
Randy K. O’Bannon, PhD., director of education and research for the National Right to Life Committee, previously reported at LifeNews that abortion groups are responding to the shortage by pushing states to allow non-doctors to do abortions and to legalize dangerous webcam abortions.
Others are trying to expand abortions by providing dangerous abortion drugs through the mail. The practice is illegal in the U.S. and many other countries. Along with the dangers to the mother and her unborn baby, pro-life advocates also have expressed strong concerns that the mail-order drugs could be misused by abusive men or parents who want to force women and girls to abort their unborn babies.
