Idaho healthcare leader discusses recent court decision about abortion

Liz Woodruff, executive director of the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians, leads and organization that represents 82 percent of family physicians in Idaho, totaling over 800 doctors.

I spoke with the leader of the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians, which was part of a lawsuit challenging the state’s abortion ban.

Liz Woodruff, the organization's executive director, told me the reasons why they joined the other plaintiffs and how they felt about a recent ruling affecting abortion law in the state.

“After the Dobbs decision, it became very clear that our members did not understand the law or how to apply it, and that patients' health and well-being were at risk because physicians didn't feel they could provide the standard of care,” Woodruff said.

The Idaho Academy of Family Physicians (IAFP) represents 82 percent of family physicians in Idaho, totaling over 800 doctors. The organization criticizes Idaho's total abortion ban, citing confusion and risk to patients, particularly in rural areas where family physicians often are the only ones who provide obstetrical care. The ban worsened the problems and complications that women have in those remote places because it closed nearby facilities.

“Now you're driving three more hours to get that care, and so that distance creates delays in care that then become exacerbated by the total abortion ban, when decisions about how to address a complication become unclear and then require additional transfers,” Woodruff said. “So it's really about proximity to care and how the abortion ban limits access by further complicating that proximity to good care.”

The ban has led to a loss of nearly a quarter of OBs in Idaho, exacerbating recruitment and retention issues. Last year, a Senate report indicated that one patient a week had to pay for helicopter transport to get a medically needed abortion. This dire situation demanded clarification for Idaho’s medical practitioners.

In Idaho, a state judge recently expanded the circumstances in which an abortion exception would work. Judge Jason D. Scott issued the ruling in a case that involved a medical exception to Idaho’s near-total ban that permits abortion only to prevent death. Lawyers hoped clarifying the laws’ medical exceptions would allow physicians to provide life-saving care without waiting for patients to be near death.

The IAFP argues it doesn't go far enough. The ban has led to the loss of nearly a quarter of OBs in Idaho, exacerbating recruitment and retention issues. The IAFP aims to clarify the ruling to support physicians and ensure standard care.

“It leaves out too many patients that need abortion care to preserve life and health,” Woodruff said. “And it doesn't resolve the larger issue around physicians not being able to deliver the standard of care to pregnant people, and that creates harm, and Idaho legislature still has an opportunity to further clean up the law to provide those things.”