Idaho governor signs ban on abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy
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Gov. Brad Little of Idaho, a Republican, signed into law a bill banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy on Wednesday, making Idaho the first state to follow the lead of the Texas law that allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and doctors for terminating an unwanted pregnancy.
The measure in Idaho is the latest in a wave of anti-abortion bills at the state level, based on the expectation that the U.S. Supreme Court is set to overturn or at least weaken Roe v. Wade when it rules on a Mississippi abortion ban later this year. The six-week ban — which goes into effect in 30 days — means that many women will not even realize they are pregnant within the time frame in which abortion is permitted.
“We heard in testimony in the committee; we heard in testimony here today that this will end many abortions in Idaho,” said the bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Steven Harris, last week after it passed the House. “Let’s save some babies.”
Little, a Republican, is facing a primary challenge from his right from his own Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, who has earned the endorsement of former President Donald Trump and has repeatedly battled with Little during their time in office.
“I stand in solidarity with all Idahoans who seek to protect the lives of pre-born babies,” Little wrote in a letter to McGeachin, who serves as president of the state Senate, announcing that he had signed the bill.
In Idaho, the mother, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles of either parent would be allowed to sue medical personnel who provide an abortion up to four years after it takes place. While rapists and perpetrators of incest would not be able to sue, their family members would be, which Little said worried him, even though he signed the bill.
“I am particularly concerned for those vulnerable women and children who lack the capacity or familial support to report incest and sexual assault,” Little wrote. “Ultimately, this legislation risks re-traumatizing victims by affording monetary [incentives] to wrongdoers and family members of rapists.”
Mistie DelliCarpini-Tolman, state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates in Idaho, told Yahoo News that the concerns expressed in Little’s letter didn’t matter.
“He still signed the bill, he is still responsible for putting abortion out of reach for most Idahoans, and it’s a shame that he listened to the extremists instead of standing up for survivors of rape and incest,” DelliCarpini-Tolman said Wednesday afternoon. “This is a prime example of actions speaking louder than words.”
Lawsuits to stop the Texas bill, which took effect in September and allows any private citizen to sue any other private citizen who aids in providing an abortion, have failed at both the state and federal levels. Legal challenges to stop the Idaho law from going into effect are expected, and the neighboring states of Washington and Oregon have already said they will help Idahoans who cross the border seeking an abortion. When Texas’s law went into effect, neighboring states saw a spike in pregnant women traveling from Texas for abortions. A number of Democratic-controlled states have enacted or are in the process of enacting protections for abortion providers in response to restrictions in other states, including a proposal in Missouri that would allow residents to sue out-of-state providers.
In a statement for Legal Voice, an advocacy group for women’s and LGBT rights, Idaho programs manager Chelsea Gaona-Lincoln told Yahoo News, “Knowing that the clock is winding down on access to safe abortion care in Idaho is absolutely sickening. Extremists know they cannot eradicate abortion — they only seek to ban access to safe abortion care, putting the lives of pregnant people at risk. As someone that is 26 weeks pregnant and an Idahoan — these legislators love to brag about local control — nothing is more local than having control over my own body.”
No Democrats voted for the measure, which passed the Idaho Senate 28-6 and the House 51-14, with three House Republicans voting against it. The signing came a day after Oklahoma’s state House passed a near-total ban on abortion, allowing exceptions only to save the mother’s life and allowing private citizens to sue any doctors who perform abortions. Republicans in Tennessee are pushing similar legislation.
DelliCarpini-Tolman told Yahoo News last week that the laws being passed across the nation are the “culmination of a decade-long campaign by anti-abortion extremists to secure this conservative majority of the Supreme Court.”
“We’ve been seeing these 15-week bans pop up across the country, in Mississippi and Kentucky and Florida and other areas,” DelliCarpini-Tolman said. “These extreme legislatures that are emboldened by the Supreme Court’s conservative bent.”
Activists and the medical community in Idaho had also spent part of March rallying against a piece of anti-trans legislation that would have made it a felony punishable by life in prison for parents to seek gender-affirming care for their children and for medical professionals to provide it. While the bill passed in the Statehouse virtually along party lines, it ended up being shelved in the Senate.
