The negative impacts of Idaho’s restrictive abortion ban are becoming clearer | Opinion
Another national story, this time in The New York Times, illustrates the impact of Idaho’s restrictive abortion ban.
The Times documented the plight and flight of maternal-health doctors in Idaho because of the potential of criminal charges associated with Idaho’s “trigger law,” which criminalized abortion once the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The Times talked to Dr. Caitlin Gustafson, a family doctor who also delivers babies in McCall — and thinks about leaving Idaho “every day.”
Two doctors have already left Idaho: Dr. Kylie Cooper, who moved to Minnesota, and Dr. Lauren Miller, who left for Colorado.
Two small hospitals in Idaho closed their labor and delivery units this year, including Bonner General Health, in North Idaho, citing the state’s “legal and political climate” and the departure of “highly respected, talented physicians.”
Dr. James Souza, the chief physician executive for St. Luke’s Health System, told The Times that the state’s laws have “had a profound chilling effect on recruitment and retention” and that St. Luke’s is now relying in part on traveling doctors to fill the gap.
Idaho sets one of the highest bars in the nation for abortion, allowing it only when a victim of rape or incest provides a police report of the crime, or to save the life of the mother.
Doctors in Idaho are now fearful of finding themselves in a situation where providing necessary medical care for a pregnant patient means they could be charged with a crime, punishable by up to two to five years in prison.
So, as The Times reported, doctors are referring patients out of Idaho for maternity care.
It’s a disastrous situation.
The impacts of the abortion ban reach more than just people who seek to have an elective abortion. It also affects basic, life-saving medical care for anyone who is pregnant. Further, as Idaho doctors flee the state, and hospitals shut down labor and delivery units, it creates maternity care deserts, making it difficult if not impossible to find a doctor.
And once again, Idaho’s Republican legislators are demonstrating a complete lack of forethought when making new laws.
“We never looked that close, and what exactly that bill said and how it was written and language that was in it,” Idaho Rep. John Vander Woude, R-Nampa, told The Times. “We did that thinking Roe v. Wade was never going to get overturned. And then when it got overturned, we said, ‘OK, now we have to take a really close look at the definitions.’”
What an embarrassment. This is how we legislate in Idaho.
It’s harder to get a conditional use permit through a city planning process than it is to get a Republican-backed bill passed through the Legislature.
Vander Woude cast doubt on claims that doctors were leaving Idaho, apparently unaware of the facts.
Vander Woude also suggested no one would ever get in trouble under the law he passed.
“I don’t see any doctor ever getting prosecuted,” he said.
First, how could a prosecutor not prosecute someone who is found to have broken the law? Second, why pass a law that you think no one would be prosecuted for?
Meanwhile, the Statesman’s Gabe Barnard reported that hundreds of Idaho residents have traveled out of state for an abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned. The article illustrates that abortion bans don’t really reduce the number of abortions; they just change where they happen and make it more difficult for people in certain states.
The situation we’re in illustrates the dangers of a one-party state. The Republican Party has absolutely no incentive to compromise or even consider the impact of awful legislation. They simply pass bills without having to think — about consequences or their constituents.
A poll commissioned by the Idaho Statesman in November showed there’s a moderate majority that favors more access to abortion than what legislators passed. A majority (61%) of Idahoans said doctors who perform abortions should not face criminal charges, yet legislators passed a bill criminalizing doctors.
Idaho law allows for an abortion only to save the mother’s life, not preserve her health, yet 85% of respondents said abortion should be legal to preserve the health of the mother.
Respondents saying abortion should always be legal vastly outweighed those who said it should always be illegal: 26% always legal to only 7% always illegal.
It’s time for legislators to listen to reason, listen to compromise and listen to voters.
And most importantly, to think about the consequences before passing extremist legislation.
Statesman editorials are the unsigned opinion of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members Mary Rohlfing and Patricia Nilsson.
