[Vision2020] The Tribune’s Opinion Abortion ban is not what Idahoans want

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today’s Lewiston Tribune . . .

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Editorial: The Tribune’s Opinion
Abortion ban is not what Idahoans want

The U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade has triggered in the Gem State some of the nation’s most draconian anti-abortion rights laws.

But you have to ask yourself a question:

Why?

Look over the litany of measures: Authorizing relatives of an aborted fetus to sue the health care provider for a minimum of $20,000. Threatening doctors with the loss of their licenses to practice, felony convictions and prison terms stretching out to five years.

Who supports that?

Not a majority of Idahoans.

Commissioned by the Idaho Statesman of Boise, SurveyUSA conducted a poll based on a sample of 550 Idahoans. It found:
 
l A bare majority — 51% — opposed all or most restrictions on abortions. That includes 35% of Republicans, 74% of Democrats and 69% of independents.

How does that square with a statewide abortion ban that begins at fertilization?

l Overwhelmingly, Idahoans support exceptions for victims of rape and incest.

On the incest exception, support comes in at 69% — including 64% of Republicans, 84% of Democrats and 73% of independents.

For victims of rape, the exception has the backing of 80% — including 76% of Republicans, 88% of Democrats and 84% of independents.

Yet Idaho’s incest and rape measures are a mirage. They require the victims to get a police report — something 60% of rape victims and 80% of all incest cases avoid.

l If an abortion is required to preserve the health of the woman, 85% think it should be provided. That’s popular across all party lines — 83% Republican, 88% Democrat and 91% independent.

Despite that, Idaho has no such provision in its abortion ban — and only a federal court ruling has provided some remnants of it within hospital emergency rooms.

l To save the life of the mother, 88% would agree to an exception. Support among Republicans is 85%. Among Democrats and independents, it’s 92%.

Idaho’s law, however, is a charade. A doctor who performs an abortion under such circumstances has an affirmative defense. In other words, he still can be charged with a felony, face the publicity and expense of a trial and risk the prospect of a jury verdict going against him.

l Idaho’s criminalization of medical doctors who perform abortions is opposed by 61%. Among them are 49% of Republicans, 82% of Democrats and 71% of independents.

l The abortion vigilante law — enabling relatives to seek a civil judgment against abortion providers — is unpopular with 71% of Idahoans, including 65% of Republicans and 80% of Democrats and independents.

So are two other ideas that so far have not been taken up by the post-Roe Legislature: 72% would oppose any law interfering with the right of an Idaho woman to travel to another state to obtain a legal abortion there. That includes 63% of Republicans, 80% of Democrats and 86% of independents.

Meanwhile 62% oppose criminally prosecuting women who obtain or solicit an abortion. Among them are 54% of Republicans, 79% of Democrats and 70% of independents.

These results are not outliers. In 2019, 65% of Idahoans told a Planned Parenthood poll that they considered it “important that women in Idaho have access to all of the reproductive health care options available, including abortion.” And in 1990, Idaho voters swept out of office several Republicans who embraced what would have been the most anti-abortion law in the U.S.

So why isn’t that consensus reflected in Idaho’s laws?

It’s possible some of this is the dog catching the car. So long as Roe remained the law of the land, Idaho Republicans could establish their anti-abortion bona fides by voting for bills the federal courts routinely tossed out.

But it’s also a fact that the bulk of Idaho’s lawmakers are insulated from public outrage. In a one-party state where most legislative seats are not challenged by Democrats, only a handful of contests this year offer the voters a chance to weigh in on the abortion issue.
 
The GOP primary is the election that counts. And the Republican Party rank and file that decides most primary contests is so opposed to abortion rights that at the state convention last summer, it voted nearly 4-to-1 against an exception for a mother who has an abortion to save her life.

What are your options?

If you’re a woman of childbearing years, you can leave Idaho for another state that respects your rights.

Or you can get busy with a 2024 initiative campaign to restore your reproductive autonomy.

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.net

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”
- Roy E. Stolworthy
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