Brad Little, Governor of Idaho, speaks on the second day of the CPAC (Conservative Political Motion Conference) in Washington, D.C. on the Gaylord National Harbor Resort & Convention.
Lev Radin | Light Rocket | Getty’s paintings
Idaho’s Republican governor, Brad Little, has signed a bill that prohibits adults from helping minors cross state lines to have abortions without parental consent.
Under the law, any adult who assists a minor in obtaining an abortion pill or surgery in Idaho or out of state is committing “trafficking”, which carries a penalty of as much as five years in prison.
Abortion stays legal in states adjoining to Idaho, akin to Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Montana.
The Idaho bill, which was signed into law on Wednesday, is the primary bill restricting interstate travel for abortions because the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June. The choice returned the regulation of the procedure to the states.
Reproductive rights activists quickly denounced the bill as a threat to the security of young people.
“We’ve a responsibility to maintain young people secure, and this bill only puts them in danger,” NARAL Pro-Alternative America president Mini Timmaraju said in an announcement.
“It is a clear and dangerous escalation of the anti-election extremist push to dam all abortion care in all states, and our families will proceed to suffer the implications. Our youngsters deserve higher,” Timmaraju said.
Idaho already has a few of the strictest abortion laws in america. The state has banned abortion as a felony punishable by as much as five years in prison. Idaho law allows a health care provider to perform an abortion if an individual’s life is in peril or in the event that they are the victim of rape or incest.
However the doctor must present “preponderance of evidence” that the abortion was vital under the limited exceptions of the ban to avoid prosecution. In cases of rape or incest, the girl must submit a police report back to the doctor.
After Roe’s demise, considered one of the few options left to women and girls living in states with abortion bans is to cross state lines to places where the procedure is legal. But Idaho law would largely cut off even that access for minors, potentially putting children in emergencies in danger.
In June, a 10-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped by a 27-year-old man crossed the state line from Ohio to Indiana to have an abortion because her home state prohibits the procedure after six weeks. Gerson Fuentes was charged with two rapes in July and reportedly pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the girl.
Republican Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita asked the state medical licensing board to punish the doctor who performed the abortion, saying they did not report the girl’s abuse to authorities. The doctor, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, said she met all reporting requirements.
In July, President Joe Biden denounced laws that force victims of sexual assault to cross state lines to get abortions as “horror.”
Should a 10-year-old be forced to provide birth to a rapist’s child? I can not consider anything more extreme,” the president said.