SB 1387, the mandatory ultrasound bill, is dead, House State Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, just confirmed. "I spoke with the right-to-life people this morning," he said. "They agreed that there's not much that can be done with the bill this year. ... We will not be scheduling a hearing on it." You can read my full story here at spokesman.com

Loertscher said of the bill, "The big problem that's been identified is the mandatory ultrasound." He said it presents a significant enough legal problem that it could cause a federal court to toss out Idaho's entire existing informed-consent law for abortion. "We certainly don't want to do damage to that," he said. He said he suggested to pro-life advocates that they "make a run at this in a little bit different way" next year.

The bill would have required any Idaho woman seeking an abortion to first undergo an ultrasound; in some cases early in pregnancy, an invasive trans-vaginal procedure would have been required to get the information required in the bill, including recording fetal heartbeat and gestational age.