Idaho is the latest state to copycat the Texas abortion vigilante law, with its legislature passing a six-week abortion ban to be enforced by private lawsuits rather than public officials. The Idaho House followed the Senate in approving the bill Monday, sending it to Gov. Brad Little’s desk. Little has previously signed a six-week abortion ban, but that law is on hold due to a legal challenge. The vigilante bill could go into effect more quickly since the Supreme Court allowed SB 8 to go into effect in Texas.
Idaho has tweaked the Texas formula somewhat while keeping the private lawsuit enforcement mechanism—the thing that allowed Republican judges to announce that there was just nothing they could do about it—intact. Texas allows any private citizen to sue anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion after six weeks for $10,000. “Aids or abets” is incredibly expansive language, potentially opening an Uber driver up to a lawsuit for bringing someone to an appointment. In Idaho, only abortion providers could be sued, and only by family members of the embryo or fetus in question.
Related: Texas and the Supreme Court handed Republicans a new tool for oppression
That would include the biological father, grandparents, siblings, and aunts and uncles. Basically, anyone in a pregnant person’s immediate family, or the immediate family of the person who impregnated her, would have specific license to try to control her medical decisions.
The bill does include exemptions for rape, incest, and medical emergencies, but would require people pregnant by rape or incest to have reported it to the police and to bring a police report to their abortion provider. That’s a huge deterrent.
“The vast majority of people don’t even report their rape or incest to the police,” Lisa Humes-Schulz, vice president of policy and regulatory affairs for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Northwest, told 19th News. “While it is an exception on paper, in reality, people really aren’t going to be able to access it.”
Medical emergencies exemptions are similarly problematic, as shown by a Texas case in which a pregnant woman had to go to New Mexico to have an ectopic pregnancy terminated after doctors refused to provide an abortion. Ectopic pregnancies are never viable and are frequently fatal.
But of course, it’s not just people who’ve been raped or are facing medical emergencies who should be able to access abortion past six weeks gestation—which is just four weeks after conception, and before some women even know they’re pregnant. This is a medical decision that should be made by the person whose body is involved, not by Idaho legislators or by a set of “family members” the person affected may not even really know.
The Trump Supreme Court and the Texas Supreme Court let this happen, though, the former on its way to likely overturning Roe v. Wade in a few months’ time. And by allowing it to happen, they unleashed a flood of copycats like this, including the Missouri proposal to block people from leaving the state for an abortion, as well as bills not related to abortion, including ones opening educators up to lawsuits if they teach anything a parent doesn’t like. This is the future Republicans and their judges want.
Related:
Texas rules against providers in abortion ban case, says state officials cannot be sued
Missouri Republican bill would block the option of leaving the state for an abortion
At least 13 states have introduced legislation to limit or ban abortion since the year’s start
