Last week, Idaho became the first state to enact a law modeled after a Texas statute banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and allowing it to be enforced through lawsuits to avoid constitutional court challenges.
Idaho’s Governor Brad Little (R) took a note from Texas, emulating its abortion bill, which both disallows abortions after the baby has a heartbeat and allows family members of a fetus killed in the womb to sue abortion providers, signed the bill, one about as strict as the one in Texas.
Idaho’s bill does, however, allow the usual exceptions for rape, incest, or medical emergencies, though the rape exception only applies if the woman both reported the rape and kept a copy of the police report.
Predictably, conservatives generally backed the bill while leftists went berserk about it and freaked out. On the conservative side, Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin was supportive of it saying, “I stand in solidarity with all Idahoans who seek to protect the lives of preborn babies.”
Republican State Representative Steven Harris, one of the bill’s sponsors, similarly said, “This bill makes sure that the people of Idaho can stand up for our values and do everything in our power to prevent the wanton destructions of innocent human life.”
On the liberal side was Planned Parenthood, which was apoplectic about the idea that fewer babies would be aborted. They said in a statement when the Idaho legislature passed the bill, “The ban won’t just deny Idahoans their constitutional right to abortion care, but also effectively eliminate care entirely for many residents who are financially unable to travel out-of-state to obtain the care they need. This will disproportionately affect the state’s Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities, people with low incomes, and those in rural areas. The reality is that some pregnant people in Idaho will be forced to carry unwanted or dangerous pregnancies to term against their will.
Continuing, CEO of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, Jennifer M. Allen said, “Physicians and medical providers around the world live by a simple principle; ‘First do not harm.’ Sadly, Idaho politicians have not taken a similar oath, and are determined to ban abortion, no matter the harm it would inflict on their constituents.
Governor Little, apparently standing in the middle somewhere, said that he signed it but had many reservations about the bill saying, “While I support the pro-life policy in this legislation, I fear the novel civil enforcement mechanism will in short order be proven both unconstitutional and unwise.
Deputizing private citizens to levy hefty monetary fines on the exercise of a disfavored but judicially recognized constitutional right for the purpose of evading court reviews undermines our constitutional form of government and weakens our collective liberties.”
Regardless of what concerns he and the Planned Parenthood leftists have, the bill will likely prove quite effective in limiting abortions.
According to the DC Enquirer, “This law is likely to produce the same effects as Texas’ heartbeat bill. When Texas’ abortion law went into effect, abortions fell by 60% in the first month. Although abortions in Texas decreased markedly, abortions in the neighboring states surged. The abortion clinics in five neighboring states saw an 800% increase in patients from Texas.”
This 800% is probably very misleading, because prior to this bill, probably very, very few women were traveling out of Texas to neighboring states to have their abortion, so the numbers could be extremely low and still Be 800%.
Though it might have taken some persuasion and will likely lead to lots of leftist scorn, Governor Little’s signing of the bill was a great victory in the fight against abortion.
After all, murder is murder! And killing a fetus with a heartbeat is Murder!.