Abortion Foes Push Bill That Expands Law Constitutional Quandary Forces Group To Liberalize Restrictions
The Idaho Family Forum has decided to push for a law change that could legalize a class of abortions banned in Idaho.
The group announced changes in its proposed abortion legislation Wednesday in response to a legal opinion from the Idaho attorney general. Among the changes is the addition of a clause allowing third-trimester abortions where the abortion is necessary to preserve the health of the mother.
Idaho law allows third-trimester abortions only to save the life of the mother, or when the fetus will not survive. The attorney general’s opinion noted that to meet constitutional standards, Idaho law would need a health exception, too.
Rep. Jeff Alltus, R-Coeur d’Alene, a sponsor of the Family Forum’s bill, said he’s comfortable with the proposed health exception.
“It’s narrow enough to where I think it’s a good definition, not the old definition of health to where, ‘Oh, I’m not feeling good today, so I can go ahead and have a third-trimester abortion.”’
He added, “What it does do is it brings us into the parameters within which the Supreme Court has said you could go. That’s the whole goal here.”
The Family Forum has promoted its abortion legislation as a way to fix what’s unconstitutional in Idaho’s abortion laws. The attorney general’s opinion, however, pointed to some constitutional problems with the Family Forum’s bill.
The opinion also said the bill would correct some constitutional problems in Idaho’s laws, but not others.
Family Forum officials weren’t available for comment Wednesday, but they released a onepage summary of the new version of their bill. It includes three changes: the health exception; a new definition of fetal viability; and a one-parent consent requirement rather than the bill’s original requirement that both parents consent before a minor can have an abortion.
All three are aimed at correcting constitutional problems highlighted in the attorney general’s opinion.
No changes are planned in the rest of the legislation, Alltus said. That includes extensive new reporting requirements and penalties for doctors. The opinion said some portions of those requirements were constitutionally questionable.
Alltus, who earlier had said he wouldn’t want to get into the issue of a third-trimester health exception, said Wednesday that such cases are rare.
“Most abortions are done as a form of birth control,” he said, adding that those are the abortions he wants to stop.
Alltus said, “Had the attorney general said three or four more things, we probably would have had three or four more changes, because the goal of the Idaho Family Forum bill is to bring the existing law into compliance with the Constitution. We need to have the law to where it’s enforceable.”
Rep. Ron Crane, R-Caldwell, chairman of the House State Affairs Committee, said his committee expects to consider introduction of three proposed abortion bills within the next week.
, DataTimes