Let’s be clear, it is dangerous to be pregnant in Idaho!
And the legislature continues to fail Idahoans with the current status of strict abortion bans that are driving doctors out of the state, collapsing community health systems, and forcing women to seek standard health care across state lines.
It’s expensive, it’s dangerous, and it’s cruel.
There should be no special requirements for accessing basic, lifesaving reproductive health care, including abortion. Quite simply, everyone should have bodily autonomy to protect their health and control their future.
People should be allowed to make decisions about their bodies with their medical providers, and we all should be able to control our bodies, our lives, and our futures without politicians interfering with our medical decisions.
Our government should not be in the business of policing why one person is deserving of health care and another isn’t. The deeply personal decision on whether or not to have a child should not be subject to politicians’ opinions on who deserves care.
Current exemptions are not enough: they are arbitrary, inadequate, and difficult for providers to navigate. They do not keep Idahoans safe and in some cases are putting future fertility at risk.
Politicians in this body continue to deny there is a problem in our state and they refuse to acknowledge the truth.
Here IS THE TRUTH: Idaho’s criminal abortion ban is a full ban, with only limited and impractical exceptions in case of rape or incest; to save the life of a pregnant person; or to address exactly two exceptions: . : molar pregnancy and ectopic pregnancy.. ).
Was that the fix? Note even close.
AnyOB/Gyn or perinatal healthcare professional will tell you there are literally thousands of other exceptions that should also have been codified, any one of which could be a dynamic health condition that could cause another condition, make another one worse, or can cause rapid health deterioration at any point in a pregnancy. This legislature did NOTHING to address this reality. This only underscores the problem of legislating healthcare, as if any of us needed more convincing.
Let me tell you another TRUTH: Health care is a fundamental right, because each of us has the basic right to bodily autonomy and agency over our deepest personal care decisions.
For this reason, many of us in the minority party have been reluctant to even consider negotiating with the supermajority on the prospect of an abortion “health exceptions bill” except that people’s lives are at risk RIGHT NOW. In good conscience, so long as the supermajority has this stranglehold on the legislature, we had to be READY to at least consider and negotiate on a health exceptions bill, which was promised to us in good faith this session. But it never came.
So we’re stepping forward today, and in the days to come, with solutions that the majority of people in Idaho are demanding. Idaho will NOT be forced back into the dark ages of medical care, where a woman’s life is considered disposable in the case of a pregnancy that threatens her health or life.
Today, what is happening is this: our physicians and nurses, our counselors, patients seeking comprehensive healthcare, women and men, and all Idahoans, are realizing they’ve been misled by their politicians who are failing to put Idaho’s true priorities first, and we’re about to take matters into our own hands. This bill we are sharing with you today should be the first step in a plan to restore all of the protections that existed before Dobbs, so that we can begin to restore true liberty in this state.
We are entering election season. The majority party continues to be out of step with everyday Idahoans and continues to put a stranglehold on our private lives. I implore us all to get involved in campaigns and work with friends, family and neighbors to elect reasonable legislative leaders who are in touch with reality and the complexity of our lives instead of those who would dictate what you read, what health care you can receive, who you can be, and who you can love. By November, we want Idaho to see a fresh start where freedom for each of us is possible again.