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PBS News Hour - Segments

Legal challenge to Idaho's strict abortion law could have nationwide implications

PBS News Hour - Segments

PBS NewsHour

News, Daily News

4.11K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2024

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

An Idaho state court will hear arguments in a case brought by four women who allege they were denied emergency care because of the state's abortion laws, which are some of the most restrictive in the nation. The women argue the law's medical exceptions are too narrow to protect the health of pregnant patients. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Jennifer Adkins and Marc Hearron. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Transcript

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0:00.0

And Idaho State Court will hear arguments tomorrow in a case brought by four women who

0:06.0

allege they were denied emergency care because of the state's abortion laws, which are some of the most restrictive in the nation.

0:12.0

The women argue that the medical exceptions in the state's laws are too narrow to protect the health of pregnant patients,

0:19.0

including in cases of fatal fetal diagnoses.

0:22.5

For more on the case, I'm joined now by the lead plaintiff, Jennifer Adkins, and Mark Heron,

0:28.1

senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the women in this lawsuit.

0:32.9

Welcome to you both.

0:34.1

And Jennifer, I want to start with you and your experience because you were 12

0:39.4

weeks pregnant with your second child when you received multiple diagnoses for the fetus,

0:45.4

including Turner syndrome, which I understand ends in miscarriage and the vast majority of cases.

0:51.5

I'm so sorry for that. Can you just tell us what it was like to receive that news?

0:57.0

I mean, it was devastating to find out that a baby that we were really excited to welcome

1:03.6

into our family was not going to survive the pregnancy. And, you know, it was, it was just,

1:09.4

it was news that no parent wants to get. And knowing that we

1:14.6

couldn't get health care in our home state was just added heartbreak to us.

1:22.3

Mark, the state attorney general here has argued that the law says, quote, it allows a doctor to

1:29.6

perform an abortion if he or she has a subjective good faith belief that there's a risk

1:34.8

of death to the mother if it's not done.

1:38.2

You're representing three other women in this case, but you're also representing two physicians

1:42.2

and a local medical association. What did they tell

1:45.3

you about how they're interpreting this exception? So actually, let me just say that the

1:51.8

attorney general's quotation of the law is wrong. The law only allows an abortion if it is,

...

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