A federal judge has ruled that it would violate Idaho medical providers’ free speech rights to sanction them for referring patients to out-of-state abortion services, rejecting the state attorney general’s interpretation of Idaho’s abortion ban.

Idaho’s law makes it illegal to perform or attempt to perform an abortion, a crime punishable by two to five years in prison. It also makes it unlawful for health care professionals to assist in the provision or attempted provision of one, with the penalty being the suspension or loss of their medical license.

Republican Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador wrote a letter to a conservative lawmaker in March in which he opined that referring a patient to legal abortion services in other states would constitute assisting in an abortion or attempted abortion — and thus would require the suspension of the health professional’s license.

Planned Parenthood and several medical providers sued the next month, arguing such a restriction would violate their First Amendment right to free speech. Health care providers are not restricted from referring patients out of state for prenatal care or other treatment, they noted.

Medical professionals “will be forced to choose between facing criminal penalties themselves and offering referrals and information about legal out-of-state medicinal services to their patients,” U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill wrote in his order Monday. “Simply put, their speech will be chilled.”

The case is one of two targeting Idaho’s strict abortion laws. A separate lawsuit challenges a new Idaho measure making it illegal to help minors get an abortion without parental consent. Attorneys general from 20 states filed a brief Tuesday urging the court to block it.

“The Constitution protects the individual right to travel between states, and Idaho’s radical Legislature cannot abolish that right,” Democratic Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement.