BOISE, Idaho — Physicians are expected to take the stand in Idaho’s capital on Tuesday to argue that the state’s near-total prohibition of abortion care is jeopardizing women’s health, forcing them to carry fetuses with deadly anomalies, and preventing doctors from intervening in potentially fatal medical emergencies.
Their testimony is scheduled to lead off the second week of a closely watched trial concerning one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans. The case, brought by four women, two physicians, and a group of medical professionals, seeks to limit the extent of the state’s ban, which prohibits abortion in almost all circumstances except to prevent a pregnant woman’s death, to stave off “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function,” or if the pregnancy was a result of a woman or girl being raped.
Over three days in district court last week, the women who brought the case shared emotional testimony about serious pregnancy complications that forced them out of state for medical care. That testimony drew objections from James Craig, an attorney with Idaho’s Office of the Attorney General, who interrupted the women frequently arguing that the details of their stories were not relevant.
Craig pushed back on assertions that Idaho’s criminal abortion laws are endangering women’s health care, while also casting abortion procedures in a negative light. Craig called abortion “barbaric and gruesome” in an opening statement.
“Abortion laws prevent unborn children from being exposed to pain,” he said.
At one point in the trial, Craig suggested that women could use any medical condition to sidestep …