With about 67 hours until polls open on Tuesday morning, as of this writing, Attorney General Raúl Labrador made a final pitch to voters regarding Proposition 1:
LABRADOR: Idaho’s Law Already Protects Mothers. Prop 1 Is Dangerously Extreme.
By Raúl Labrador
If you listen to the Proposition 1 ads, you would think Idaho law has no exceptions. You would think the exceptions do not work. You would think women are dying in Idaho hospitals because doctors are too afraid to treat them.
None of those claims are true.
Idaho’s law is clear. We want to save the mother, and we want to save the child. When a pregnancy puts a mother’s life in jeopardy, Idaho law allows her doctor to act. The law does not tell a doctor to wait until a woman is at the moment of death. It says that if a doctor has a good faith belief that her condition can lead to her death, he can perform an abortion. The Idaho Supreme Court clarified this standard in 2023 when it declared there is no immediacy requirement. A doctor does not have to believe the mother will die tomorrow or in the next few hours. If her condition may lead to her death, they can treat her now.
So why are some doctors confused about the law? Because they refuse to study the law. Do not take my word for it. Take the word of the doctor who sued the State of Idaho claiming that Idaho law prevented him from providing proper care to his patients. We asked him under oath whether he had read the law before he sent pregnant women out of state. He testified he had not. Whether he asked a lawyer to explain it to him? The answer was no. Whether he read the Idaho Supreme Court’s decision explaining the law? Also, no. He sued the state of Idaho claiming our law did not allow him to care for his patients, and he had never bothered to learn what the law allows.
Most Idaho doctors understand the law. Some have told us they wish it were more permissive. That is an honest policy disagreement. But a doctor who refused to read the law is not proof the law is impossible to understand and follow.
Now consider what Proposition 1 proponents claim Idaho law does and what it actually does. Its sponsors say it simply restores Roe v. Wade. That is not true.
Under Roe, abortion was allowed until viability, the point when a child can survive outside the womb. Proposition 1 rewrites that definition. Under Prop 1, a child is not viable until he or she can survive outside the womb “without extraordinary medical measures.” The initiative never defines that phrase. The sponsors say that definition reflects the medical community’s standards. It does not. In fact, the phrase is borrowed from California’s abortion law, which never defines it. A child who needs a feeding tube or a ventilator may or may not count as viable at all, because the initiative never says whether that care is “extraordinary.” Even under Roe, the viability of that child was clear.
Another problem created by Prop 1 is that it makes it clear that if the language of the proposition conflicts with any other law in Idaho, Prop 1 trumps other Idaho laws. For example, there has been a debate about parental consent because the sponsors say Prop 1 leaves that portion of Idaho law untouched. It is true that the initiative does not directly repeal parental consent. What it does is create an expansive new right of abortion that overrides every other Idaho law, leaving the question for a judge to decide later. You know there will be lawsuits over whether parental rights still exist in Idaho. If that right is found to be in conflict with the expansive right to abortion, a judge will rule that Prop 1 supersedes existing parental rights. The sponsors were warned about this potential conflict before submitting the initiative and chose not to fix it. That tells you everything you need to know about their intent.
Finally, and most problematic, the sponsors say they only want to insert a health exception into Idaho law. Please ask what “health” means to the people who will interpret it. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has indicated there is no such thing as an elective abortion under their definition of health, and that ALL abortions are medically indicated. If every abortion is medically indicated, then a health exception is not a limit at all. It is abortion on demand, which is their ultimate goal.
Idaho’s current law protects unborn life, with exceptions for reported rape, incest, and the life of the mother. Proposition 1 would replace that law with something far more extreme, written in words so broad that its own sponsors cannot define its central terms.
I oppose Proposition 1 because it is too extreme for Idaho. Read it for yourself, and join me in voting NO on November 3rd.
RELEASE: Judge Denies Preliminary Injunction in Prop 1 Campaign Finance Case
An Idaho state district court judge today denied a request for a preliminary injunction in Luna v. Idahoans United for Women and Families.
The lawsuit alleged that Idahoans United for Women and Families, the Idaho State Democratic Party, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terri Pickens coordinated an eleventh-hour effort to launder money for television ads on Proposition 1 and obtain federally required lower rates as much as ten times cheaper than the Stop Prop 1 campaign.
Idahoans United for Women and Families admitted to contributing more than $720,000 to the Idaho Democratic Party after asking them to run Prop 1 advertisements. That money was then immediately spent on advertisements for Prop 1 at rates lower than Idahoans United could have obtained by themselves.
The judge recognized that “the parties have had a short time to advance this lawsuit and that if there was additional time, additional facts may be developed by either party which could lend further credence to their claims or defenses.”
A statement from Tom Luna, a plaintiff in the case:
There’s no doubt that the Prop 1 campaign and the Idaho Democratic Party gamed the system for one purpose—to obtain an unfair advantage in advertising rates in the final days of this campaign.
We disagree with the outcome today. But now voters know the truth—and we trust that voters won’t let the Prop 1 campaign get away with it.
I’m sure many voters are as mad as I am about these dirty tricks. Let’s make sure we turn our frustration into action by showing up on Election Day, making our voices heard, and standing for life. We’ll see you at the polls.
Enjoy the extra hour this weekend, and make sure to vote on Tuesday if you haven’t already. I plan to vote on Election Day, and then I’ll head down to the Courtyard Marriott for the Idaho GOP election night watch party starting at 7pm. Maybe I’ll see you there!
As always, thank you to sponsors Lynn Bradescu’s Boise Realty, Money Metals, and New Saint Andrews College. Do you want to see more independent journalism and level-headed political analysis in Idaho? Consider supporting the Gem State Chronicle with a paid subscription! Thank you again to all those who have given of themselves to support me and my work. I am humbled and grateful!