Kyle Pfannenstiel, Idaho Capital Sun

Since Idaho’s abortion bans took effect almost four years ago, an Idaho doctor says he’s had to send patients out of state for medically necessary abortions for a range of pregnancy complications under which he used to be able to provide abortions.

Dr. Stacy Seyb, who treats high-risk pregnancies as a maternal fetal medicine specialist, answered questions under oath on the first trial day of his federal lawsuit seeking medical exceptions to Idaho’s near-total abortion ban. The lawsuit is one of several that have challenged Idaho’s abortion ban.

Idaho has several abortion ban laws that, if violated, could allow doctors to be prosecuted and lose their medical licenses, as well as allow them to be sued for at least $20,000 by family members of a person who obtained an abortion. Idaho’s law allows abortions that are needed to prevent the death of the mother, but not to protect her health. Seyb’s lawsuit seeks medical exemptions that would allow abortion to prevent permanent health declines, death by suicide and fatal fetal conditions.

Despite calls for change, including by the state’s top medical association, Idaho lawmakers have largely refused to modify Idaho’s strict abortion laws. After the state’s abortion bans took effect, Idaho lost more than a third of its obstetrician doctors, a study found last year. A group behind a proposed ballot initiative to end Idaho’s ban is awaiting confirmation from election officials on whether it will qualify for the November ballot.

Under questioning from his attorney, Seyb said he and other doctors are unsure about when abortions are allowed under Idaho’s laws — and that he refers patients out of state for conditions under which he used to provide abortions.

“It’s been very, very difficult trying to figure out what types of procedures … would not put you in harm’s way,” Seyb said at the trial in federal court.

Labrador says U.S. Supreme Court made clear ‘that there is no right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution’

Seyb’s lawsuit is against Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts and the Idaho Board of Medicine, which licenses doctors. Neither side presented opening arguments at the first day of the trial, instead diving directly into questioning doctors who served as witnesses.

Last week, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador told the Idaho Capital Sun that the U.S. Supreme Court, in overturning Roe v. Wade, made clear “that there is no right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution, and that states have the right to decide abortion policy.”

“This applies to all manner of abortions, including abortions that are done for a claimed medical reason,” he said in a written statement. “In short, abortion, regardless of the reason for the abortion, is not deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition and is therefore not implicit in the concept of ordered liberty. Since there is no fundamental right to abortion, Dr. Seyb is unable to show that Idaho’s laws protecting the lives of unborn children are unconstitutional.”

There is no jury in the trial, which is led by federal judge B. Lynn Winmill. It is set to continue until Monday, June 15.

Doctor lists medical conditions that he has to refer for out of state abortions

Labrador, the attorney for state officials and agencies, watched as one of his attorneys questioned Seyb and other doctors about their testimony. At several points, Labrador’s attorney, Jim Craig, sought to undermine Seyb’s case.

Through Craig’s series of questions, Seyb acknowledged that he has not been criminally charged for providing an unlawful abortion, or been told he’s being investigated by the Idaho Board of Medicine.

Craig repeatedly tried to get Seyb to admit he didn’t take time to understand how an Idaho court interpreted Idaho’s abortion ban as not requiring women face an “imminent” death risk to be allowed to lawfully receive abortions in Idaho.

But Seyb seemed skeptical of that assurance.

“I think there’s still a lot of controversy around those things,” he replied.

Under questioning from his attorney, Seyb said he hasn’t seen guidance from Labrador, the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office and the Board of Medicine on how the state’s abortion bans work.

Labrador’s office attempted to get the lawsuit dismissed before trial, claiming that Seyb didn’t understand how Idaho’s abortion law works. But in a ruling rejecting that request, Winmill wrote that “the contours of the life-of-the mother exception remain ambiguous” even to him.

Seyb’s attorney questioned him on a list of medical problems — like preeclampsia, kidney disease and placental abnormalities — that in the past had prompted Seyb to perform medically indicated abortions in Idaho, that he now refers or feels he would need to refer patients to doctors in neighboring states for. Oftentimes, he said he’d send patients to Utah. The state, which borders Idaho, has a less strict abortion ban, because its near-total ban is temporarily blocked in court.

Doctors discuss how mental health fits into abortion

His lawsuit also seeks to allow abortions in cases where the mother may die by suicide.

Dr. Marcela Smid, a maternal fetal medicine specialist from Utah, said that treatments for some mental health conditions, such as bipolar disorder, are linked with birth defects. That, she said, pushes some pregnant women on those medications to risk destabilizing their mental health by quitting the medications. In an article she wrote, which was referenced in the hearing, she said suicide is less common during pregnancy than other times in someone’s life, but more common directly after pregnancy in the postpartum period.

Seyb discussed one of his patients who had severe bipolar disorder. She did well during pregnancy, he said, but died by suicide during the postpartum period.

Smid noted that mental health conditions appear to be the most frequent contributing factor to maternal deaths in Idaho, citing years of reports by the state’s panel that studies maternal deaths.

But she also suggested that Idaho is tracking suicide in pregnant women and recent mothers in odd ways. She pointed to a shift by the panel, called the Maternal Mortality Review Committee, in recent years to stop counting mothers’ suicides as related to the pregnancy if they previously had reported thinking about suicide or attempting suicide before they were pregnant.

Idaho health officials are investigating how nearly 60 people got sick after drinking raw milk in the past two weeks.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced in a news release on Wednesday that most of the people reported being sick after drinking raw milk from two different milking operations in North Idaho and southern Idaho. The infections were reported starting May 19.

The state health agency didn’t disclose the names of the dairies, but said they are collaborating with health officials “to identify and fix any potential sources of contamination.”

In a statement, Department of Health and Welfare spokesperson AJ McWhorter said the agency didn’t name the milking operations “because this is a potential risk for any raw milk producer.”

“The milking operations are working with public health officials to figure out which patches of milk might be affected and to take steps to remedy the situation,” McWhorter said.

Raw milk isn’t pasteurized, a process that involves heating the milk to kill bacteria — like Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella — that can be present in raw milk.

So far, 45 of the people who got sick tested positive for campylobacteriosis, a bacterial infection. But officials say not everyone who got sick has been tested, and that more illnesses could be found.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare says its public health division is working with local health officials across six of Idaho’s seven regional public health districts to investigate the source of the outbreaks, including Central District Health, Southwest District Health, Eastern Idaho Public Health, Southeastern Idaho Public Health, Panhandle District Health, and South Central Public Health. Officials are investigating to find batches that are potentially concerning and test milk samples.

What are the symptoms of infections linked to raw milk?

Symptoms of infections from bacteria that can be in raw milk include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever and dehydration. Complications can be severe, especially in people at higher risk such as young children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems.

Health officials encourage people who are feeling symptoms after recently drinking raw milk to seek medical care promptly. To report an illness or get more information, officials encourage people to contact their local public health district.

The Trump administration sued Idaho’s top election official after he declined to give the federal government access to sensitive personal information about 1 million Idaho registered voters.

Idaho secretary of state won’t give US Justice Department sensitive voter information

The U.S. Justice Department sued Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane on Wednesday, and asked a federal judge to force him to turn over the full voter data, which includes partial Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.

More than a month ago, McGrane declined the Justice Department’s demands for the voter data — even after the Justice Department has sued other states. In December, a Justice Department attorney threatened to sue Idaho if it didn’t turn over the data, according to a voicemail that the Idaho Capital Sun obtained in a public records request.

McGrane, a Republican who’s running for re-election, told the Justice Department in a February letter that he doesn’t believe his office is required under “a clear legal duty” to share Idaho’s full voter roll with the federal government.

“Idaho law strictly governs the disclosure of voter information. In the absence of a clear legal requirement that Idaho provide a copy of its complete, unredacted voter list, and in light of my responsibility to protect Idahoans’ personal information, my office will not provide the requested data,” McGrane wrote to the Justice Department in February.

The lawsuit marks the Justice Department’s 30th against states for not complying with its demands for voter data.

In a statement, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said many state election officials “are choosing to fight us in court rather than show their work.”

“The Justice Department will continue to fulfill its oversight role dutifully, neutrally, and transparently wherever Americans vote in federal elections,” Dhillon said. “Many state election officials, however, are choosing to fight us in court rather than show their work. We will continue to verify that all States are carrying out critical election integrity legal duties.”

In a statement Wednesday, McGrane said he’s confident “in Idaho’s elections and the efforts we’ve led to ensure secure and accessible elections.”

“Idahoans have confidence in how we run our elections,” McGrane told the Sun. “The county clerks and I are committed to ensuring that confidence continues into this year’s mid-term elections.”

After reviewing the citizenship status of all registered voters with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, McGrane said only 11 noncitizens were referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.

How we got here: Justice Department says it sought info for election security

McGrane’s office already gave the Justice Department a copy of Idaho’s publicly available voter registration list, which scrubs that sensitive personal information, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.

The Justice Department has said it wants Idaho’s data to ensure election integrity.

But as the Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement, some fear how the federal government will use the data. A Justice Department attorney recently told a federal judge in Rhode Island that the Justice Department is sharing the voter data with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to look for noncitizens, Stateline reported.

Trump has falsely claimed that droves of noncitizens vote, a crime which is actually rare nationally and in Idaho.

In September, the U.S. Justice Department asked Idaho — like it had asked other states — to turn over its full voter registration records with identifiable, sensitive information on registered voters.

The Justice Department has sued 29 other states for refusing to turning over their voter registration lists with sensitive information, according to the Brennan Center. But federal judges dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuits against Oregon, California and Michigan.

Idaho election officials have detailed to the Justice Department the state’s work to purge noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls. In a December email obtained by the Sun, an Idaho election official told federal officials that after verifying citizenship for all registered Idaho voters, the Secretary of State’s Office flagged about 30 possible noncitizens to be investigated.

The number of suspected noncitizens on Idaho’s voter roll referred to prosecution got even smaller from there. Idaho State Police referred about a dozen people to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is part of the U.S. Justice Department, for possible prosecution, the state official wrote.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.