Abortion laws continue to spark heated debate in Idaho, which ranked 47th in the nation in total abortions in 2011,
according to the anti-abortion website Abort73.com.
The state’s abortion rate in that year was 4.7 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, compared with a national abortion rate of 13.9, the website said.
In March 2015, the Idaho Senate approved a measure requiring doctors to do a physical exam and also provide counseling to any woman seeking the
abortion pill, RU-486, the Boise Weekly reported.
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Later, in July 2015, a Republican-led measure kept Idaho doctors from from using telemedicine to counsel women who sought an abortion drug prescription but had no access to a clinic,
The Associated Press noted. Now, such a medicine must be given in person by licensed physicians.
“I think telemedicine is a useful technology, particularly when you’re talking about having access that can’t be in the room when you’re working with your physician, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to create greater access to a lower standard of care.”
—Senate President Pro Tem
Brent Hill, R-Idaho Falls, The Associated Press
In May, a federal appeals court ruled as unconstitutional an Idaho law prohibiting abortions of fetuses 20 weeks or more after fertilization. The class-action lawsuit challenging the law was led by Jennie McCormack, who faced criminal charges after taking abortion pill RU-486. The charges against McCormack, whose fetus was determined to be between 19 and 23 weeks, were dismissed,
the Los Angeles Times reported.
"This ruling is a warning to other states around the country passing bans on abortion that are unconstitutional and dangerous for women."
— Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, in a statement reported by International Business Times
“A woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy is recognized for the rich all over the United States. There is no woman who is rich who can’t get in a car or on a plane and get safe and effective treatment. But in some states, poor, young women are cut completely out of reproductive health. It’s two Americas for women’s reproductive heath. What the poor and the middle class are going to do is they are going to bypass clinics. They will get pills from the Internet or Mexico. It’s just a fact.”
— Richard Hearn, Jennie McCormack’s attorney, New York Magazine
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“We have always recognized that it will take a decision by the Supreme Court to allow expanded protection of unborn children capable of feeling pain, and there are strong indications that five of the sitting Justices would look with sympathy on a law providing such protection.”
— Mary Spaulding Balch, director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee, LifeNews
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