fatal

Jennifer Adkins and three other women were pregnant when they received almost certainly fatal fetal diagnoses.

They and the physician plaintiffs seek to establish that Idaho’s law allows an abortion whenever a patient has a physical medical condition or complication that makes it unsafe to continue a pregnancy, has a condition exacerbated by pregnancy that can’t otherwise be easily treated, or is told about a fetal condition that is likely to be fatal after birth.

Adkins builds on a line of cases involving women like Kate Cox, a Texas woman who traveled out of state to seek an abortion after receiving a diagnosis of trisomy 18, a fetal condition that is usually fatal; and Amanda Zurawski, also from Texas, who suffered the preterm rupture of membranes, a condition that led to a severe infection that almost killed her.

Jennifer Adkins was pregnant with her second child when she was told that the child had multiple, likely fatal conditions—and that if that pregnancy continued, she was at high risk of suffering mirror syndrome, which could lead to life-threatening edema and eclampsia.

Kayla Smith, another plaintiff, learned at a 19-week scan that her child had an inoperable and likely fatal heart condition.