Groups looking for ways around abortion law

Two abortion-rights groups took steps late last week to continue to advocate for more exceptions in Idaho’s strict abortion bans.

The state’s abortion laws on the books offer a narrow exemption to prevent the death of the mother, and it has been an ongoing debate whether this is sufficient protection for health care providers and for pregnant mothers who face complications. There are also limited exemptions for cases of rape and incest with a police report and if it’s within the first trimester of pregnancy.

“This is not what Idaho wants,” Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Idaho State Director Mistie DelliCarpini-Tolman said. “This is not what any of the polling shows that Idaho wants and yet we see a few extremist lawmakers calling the shots for everybody in the state and creating this really irresponsible and dangerous situation.”

Idaho has three separate laws that ban the procedure: a six-week “fetal heartbeat” ban; a total ban that made nearly all abortions felonies triggered by the overturning of Roe v. Wade; and a Texas-style civil liability law, which allows family members of a fetus aborted after six weeks to sue the abortion provider for a minimum of $20,000.

Many health care providers also say the exemptions aren’t adequate to feel confident they can provide emergency abortions in cases where death may not be imminent but from which serious health complications could arise.

The issue has been fought in the Legislature, in the courts and with an expected voter initiative proposal.

On Friday, a coalition called United for Women and Families announced it would launch an effort to get an initiative on the ballot in 2026 that would likely try to add a clear health exemption to the laws. On Sunday, abortion-rights advocates gathered at the Capitol to show support for emergency abortion care ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on a challenge to Idaho’s total ban.

The Department of Justice is arguing that Idaho’s ban violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). Idaho’s attorneys argued in a briefing to the court that the federal law requiring emergency treatment to be provided does not include abortion, especially if it’s illegal in that state.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case on Wednesday.

The rally Sunday was planned by Planned Parenthood Greater Northwest as well as its advocacy arm, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates and other partners such as the ACLU of Idaho and Legal Voice.

Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, said that the rally Sunday was meant to increase the visibility of the issue facing doctors and pregnant people.

“Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, they really have created a nationwide reproductive health care crisis,” Gibron said in an interview. She said there are 36 million people who live in states where abortion is illegal.

The threat of felony punishment and prison has made recruiting and retaining health care providers difficult, especially for OB-GYNs, she said, and many people in rural areas are a long ways from accessing these services in other states where it’s legal.

Around 500 people gathered Sunday at the Capitol steps for the rally, which included remarks from Gibron, DelliCarpini-Tolman, Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, and Rabbi Daniel Fink. The event also included an exhibit to highlight stories from providers and patients.

DelliCarpini-Tolman said in the interview the event was also meant to protest the fact that Idaho was arguing in court that “their abortion ban applies even when the patient’s life is in danger.”

“It feels like a callous and cruel move,” she said.

Physicians and advocates have urged the Legislature to amend the laws on the books, but nothing was introduced and heard in the past two sessions. Asked about the number of health care providers leaving the state, House Speaker Mike Moyle told reporters at a news conference he wasn’t sure the abortion laws were to blame and that it was a “convenient” excuse.

He also said the Supreme Court case will help determine if more needs to be done to amend the law for emergency situations.

Leaders from Planned Parenthood and the newly formed United for Women and Families group argued that the majority of Idahoans support at least some exemptions.

Spokesperson for the group Melanie Folwell said Moyle’s comments were “dismissive” and “gravely disappointing.”

“It’s just not the reality on the ground,” Folwell said. “And so this group is very much trying to respond to the fact that we have not been able to get a fix from our politicians, from our lawmakers. We are going to seek a fix from people. Because the people of Idaho seem to understand the contours of this problem and the realities of this problem.”

The coalition commissioned a poll that was performed over the course of about a week in 2022 and found that a total of 57% of voters surveyed thought abortion should be legal in all or some cases. The poll asked 603 likely 2022 voters and also found 12% said abortion should never be legal.

The official Idaho GOP platform, adopted in 2022, states that abortion should be illegal in all cases.

“The reality is the Legislature is out of touch with their constituents,” said Gibron, who was not involved in the survey. “We know that the majority of Idahoans, and in fact the majority of Americans across the country, support access to abortion care.”

The poll also found that 69% either strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement, “We all have strong beliefs about abortion, but we should not impose them onto others.”

The coalition said it is working with lawyers and medical professionals to determine what a potential initiative may look like, and it’s fundraising for its efforts. This group and actions were spurred by the inaction in the Legislature this year.

“It seems like some legislators made this decision not really understanding the full scope of the problem,” said Cynthia Dalsing, a retired certified nurse midwife and board member of the coalition. “... this has a really broad ripple, and the inability of the Legislature to even acknowledge it is frustrating.”

Other states have taken action through the ballot initiative process to support abortion access or amend bans to create more exemptions, but an initiative in Idaho would likely look different.

Voters in other states have approved constitutional amendments through these initiatives, but Idaho’s constitution cannot be amended this way. But voter initiatives can amend or repeal laws currently on the books.

To get a proposed initiative on the ballot, supporters must collect at least 6% of all qualified voters from the last general election in 18 of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts; the total number of signatures must also be greater than or equal to 6% of qualified voters statewide in the last general election.

There have been efforts to amend the law in the Statehouse as well. Last year, a bill was introduced that would have added protecting the mother’s health to the laws, but later another version of the bill was introduced and passed without the language; the new bill added new language that said treatment for ectopic pregnancies and molar pregnancy were not considered abortions.

This session, a number of lawmakers said there were efforts to introduce legislation that would create a health exemption, but leaders wouldn’t allow any of them to be seen. Democrats criticized the move and called on the Legislature to introduce a fix late in the session, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.

The minority legislative leaders and Republican Rep. Lori McCann, of Lewiston, said there was a bipartisan effort this year but that they were told a proposal on the subject had to be acceptable to the leader of Idaho Chooses Life — the principal author of Idaho’s ban.

McCann said in an earlier interview that she was told by legislative leaders that if Idaho Chooses Life Executive Director David Ripley did not approve, then it wouldn’t go anywhere.

Ripley denied that he had this veto ability. He did say that he has been meeting with physicians about their fears and finds them unfounded.

“I don’t think the problem is with the law, I think the problem is with the understanding of the law and the present state of ethics within the profession,” Ripley said.

He said Idaho has “the best law in the country” when it comes to banning abortion. He argued that abortion-rights advocates were stoking fear among health care providers that he didn’t believe reflected the Legislature’s intention behind the laws.

He said there’s a disagreement among many in his group and other anti-abortion advocates over what should be the standard of care. Ripley said the medical community is generally given broad authority to create its own regulations and standards, but that “there is also a moral component to this standards of care, which the public has every right to be involved in.”

He said he thinks most people who identify as “pro-life” have a similar position to his, but noted that there’s a spectrum, including some who think there should never be any exemptions; he disagrees with this view, and thinks it runs counter to what it means to be “pro-life.”

“We do not value one life over another,” he said.

DelliCarpini-Tolman said that Planned Parenthood will continue seeking all avenues to try to improve access to abortion, with the ultimate goal of someday making the procedure fully legal again.

“I think it’s important to say that, while we support exemptions for people being able to access emergency care … an exemptions bill will never be enough,” she said. “There’s no way we can ever name every exception that would need to be named. We will continue to fight. We will never stop fighting for people to get their right to access abortion restored.”

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on X @EyeOnBoiseGuido.