BOISE, Idaho– A new Idaho organization says it will ask voters to restore access to abortion and other reproductive health care rights in the state after lawmakers allowed a second legislative session to end without changing strict abortion bans blamed for a recent exodus of health care providers.
“We have not been able to get a solution from our legislators, our politicians. We are going to seek a solution from our people,” Melanie Folwell, spokeswoman for Idahoans United for Women and Families, said Friday morning. “The people of Idaho understand the contours of this problem.”
Idaho has several anti-abortion laws to its name, including one that makes performing abortions a crime, even in medical emergencies, unless they are done to save the life of the pregnant patient. The federal government has sued Idaho over the ban, saying it violates a federal law that requires hospitals to provide stabilizing care — including abortion — when a patient’s life or health is in serious danger.
Idaho’s attorneys say the ban allows life-saving procedures for things like ectopic pregnancies, and they argue the Biden administration is trying to create a federal “abortion loophole” in Idaho hospitals.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in that case on Wednesday.
Idahoans United for Women and Families is fundraising and hopes to have one or more ballot initiatives ready to present this summer in an effort to get them on the 2026 ballot, Folwell said.
Across the country, there have been increasing efforts to ask voters questions about abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and struck down the right to abortion nationwide. Voters in seven states have sided with abortion rights advocates on ballot measures, and several other states have signed onto future ballot initiatives.
Cynthia Dalsing, a certified midwife in northern Idaho and a board member of Idahoans United for Women and Families, said her region went from offering a “first-class midwifery services package” to a maternal care desert after the four local midwives left the country. stands.
Pregnant women in the state’s panhandle now have to either travel as far as 80 miles away or leave the state entirely for obstetric care, Dalsing said. Some are delivering babies at home due to a lack of other options, she said.
According to data collected by the Idaho Physician Well-Being Action Collaborative, about a quarter of Idaho obstetricians have stopped practicing since a near-total abortion ban went into effect in August 2022, as have about half of the state’s maternal-fetal physicians . Three hospitals have closed their labor and delivery units.
Some doctors and companies warn that the abortion ban also has other ripple effects.
At a press conference on Thursday, Dr. Jim Souza said reduced access to prenatal health care means some dangerous pregnancy conditions will be diagnosed later than normal. Souza, the chief medical officer of the Boise-based St. Luke’s Health System, said this could lead to a greater need for intensive medical treatment for newborns or expensive medical interventions for mothers, which could have been avoided with better access to obstetric care .
A coalition of groups, including the American Women’s Chamber of Commerce, Levi Strauss & Co., Yelp, Lyft and Match Group Inc., which run dating apps like Tinder, have filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case, claiming the abortion ban makes it harder to hire employees recruitment and retention and leads to more time. free from work for those who have to travel elsewhere for care.