Prop. 1: Time for some facts

By Betsy Z. Russell
Reader Contributor

In my nearly four decades covering Idaho politics, I saw lots of political mischief, mayhem and skullduggery. But I find the current misinformation and disinformation campaign against Proposition 1 that’s being spread far and wide, including in frightening TV ads, to be a disappointing new low for our state.

Here are the facts: Idaho’s current abortion ban contains no health exception for the mother. None. Nor does it contain an exception for non-viable pregnancies — those with no chance of survival at birth. 

Idaho’s medical community has been working and pleading with lawmakers to fix this for the past four years. The Legislature did pass a single bill during that time to exempt ectopic pregnancies from the ban. Ectopic pregnancies are a death sentence, first for the fetus, and then often for the mother as well. But the Legislature refused to address any kind of health exemption for the mother. That’s why there’s now a citizen initiative on the ballot.

It has nothing to do with New York or California. It puts our law back to where it’s been for the past 50 years, until the Dobbs decision overturning Roe vs. Wade was handed down in 2022.

Idaho has many, many laws regarding abortion on its books. For decades, lawmakers passed farther- and farther-reaching abortion restrictions every election year. Often they were framed as litmus tests — vote “yes,” or you’re not really a Republican. And most or all did — in part because the laws had absolutely no effect. Roe vs. Wade was the law of the land. It didn’t matter what the Idaho Legislature passed. Until the 2022 Dobbs decision, they had only political value.

Those laws included several “trigger” laws that would take effect immediately if Roe vs. Wade were overturned. Trigger laws were being passed even decades ago, when no one envisioned the U.S. Supreme Court reversing its longstanding precedent. When it actually did so in 2022, the “trigger” was pulled, and that’s how we got what’s currently on the books as our state law.

These laws are by definition extreme. Who would want to require Idaho women, by law, to carry to full-term even pregnancies that have gone horribly wrong? At the cost of their health, their future fertility and permanent damage to their major bodily functions? Who would want Idaho families to be forced, by law, to stretch out the pain of a tragic loss for a full nine months, and also risk never being able to have children again after suffering that heartbreak?

The only exceptions to Idaho’s current abortion ban are for first-trimester cases of rape or incest that are documented by a police report — most aren’t — and to “prevent the death of the pregnant woman.” 

Just to prevent the death. Not to preserve her health, her fertility, her chance at a normal life. And also, since 2023, for a single fatal condition known as ectopic pregnancy. 

That’s why Idaho women are being airlifted to other states for emergency treatment for pregnancy complications and miscarriages. Idaho law doesn’t allow them to be treated here; it’s a crime. The law orders doctors to prioritize the fetus, even if doomed, over the health of the mother. 

The real question here is who should decide in such tragic cases — certain legislators who believe this is how it should be, that this is somehow God’s will? Or the mother, her doctor and her family? Under our current laws, it’s the legislators. 

Under Prop. 1, it would go back to the mother, her doctor and her family, as it should.

Vote “yes” on Prop. 1.

Betsy Z. Russell is a retired newspaper reporter who covered Idaho government, politics and elections for nearly four decades, working for the Idaho Press, The Spokesman-Review and the Idaho Statesman, and writing the “Eye on Boise” political blog from 2004 until her retirement. She retired on Jan. 1, 2023.