Boiseans rally to bring awareness to rising rates of maternal, infant mortality
About two dozen people marched down Main and Idaho streets Friday to support abortion rights and bring awareness to rising rates of maternal and infant deaths.
The march was led by members of the Southwest Idaho chapter of the National Organization for Women.
Cindy Thorngren, 62 of Boise, is the president of the group. She’s also a fifth-generation Idahoan. She’s concerned that mothers and children will die at an increasing rate because of the state’s near total ban on abortion.
“This is not the Idaho I grew up in,” Thorngren told the Idaho Statesman at the rally. “We want people to be able to make choices over their own bodies. So many of us are mothers ourselves. We’re not anti-child.”
Idaho’s maternal mortality rate doubles
From 2019 to 2021, the state’s mortality rate for mothers rose 121.5%, while the rate for children rose 18%, according to a Nov. 28 report from Idaho Kids Covered. That was before the overturning of Roe v. Wade triggered Idaho’s abortion ban in 2022.
Earlier this year, the GOP-led Idaho Legislature disbanded a state committee that investigated the root causes of maternal deaths, making it the only state in the country with no such mortality review.
Thorngren said the committee, called the Maternal Mortality Review Committee, needs to be reinstated.
“This is data driven,” she said. “It would allow us to look at deaths from pregnancies and see how we compare with, say, Montana. But we can’t do that if we don’t have the same data. We know that doctors in Idaho want this.”
The Statesman reported in November on a handful of Idaho women who faced unviable pregnancies or potentially life-threatening complications and were forced to seek care in neighboring states — care that’s often not covered by insurance because the visits are considered out of network.
Almost all abortions are banned in Idaho. The only exceptions are when the pregnancy risks the death of the patient, or was due to reported incest or rape.
Earlier this year, the Idaho Legislature passed an exception to the abortion ban that clarified it doesn’t apply to ectopic or molar pregnancies, but lawmakers blocked an effort to include exceptions when a pregnant patient’s health is at risk.
Several Idaho women are suing the state over its restrictions, seeking to clarify what circumstances qualify as emergency exceptions.
Abortion rights are ‘fundamental,’ rally-goer says
Sarah Judd, 27 of Boise, attended the downtown rally to support the right to an abortion, which she said is “fundamental.” She said the decision to have an abortion should be made between a patient and their doctor, not left up to the state.
“We talk so much in Idaho about the freedom of citizens from the government, but suddenly there’s a state representative in my doctor’s office?” Judd told the Statesman.
The protesters, mostly women, carried signs that said “a safer future for Idaho moms” and “expand postpartum Medicaid coverage.”
Idaho lawmakers this year considered but did not pass legislation that would have expanded postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months. Thorngren said outcomes for mothers and infants are better when mothers have health care during that critical period after giving birth.
Mark Bennett, 52 of Boise, was walking down the sidewalk near the Egyptian Theatre at the time of the rally and stopped to offer his support when he saw their signs.
He told the Statesman women should be able to get an abortion if they want or need one. He said he has two daughters, a 20-year-old and a 21-year-old, and would want them to have that option if the situation arose.
“Everybody should be allowed to be in control of their own health and their own bodies,” Bennett said.
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