The Senate is debating SB 1165, Sen. Chuck Winder's bill to ban all abortions after 20 weeks on grounds of fetal pain, unless it's to save the mother's life or physical health. "I think it's worthy of our consideration during a very stressful legislative session," Winder told the Senate. "This is not an effort to challenge Roe vs. Wade. This is to take a bite out of the apple, to move it back, under new science, new information that's available to us, relating to pain suffered in the event of an abortion."

But Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll, R-Cottonwood, told the Senate that the thinking behind the bill is that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has cited fetal pain issues in his writing on abortion, and he'd be the deciding vote on abortion, which Roe vs. Wade legalized up to the point of fetal viability. "It just seems like there's a very great chance, with Kennedy being the deciding vote on the Supreme Court," she said. "In his decisions ... he talked about the fetal pain. ... That 's our contention is that this would be upheld by the Supreme Court if it came to that point."

Sen. Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, spoke against the bill, citing cases of serious fetal abnormalities. "These are fetal conditions that are incompatible with life outside of the womb after birth. This bill would not allow the parents to have a choice, but would require the mother to go through a painful birth, because natural vaginal birth is painful, only to watch the baby die," she said. She also noted that the bill would give a rapist standing to sue a doctor over an abortion past 20 weeks.

Both Winder and Nuxoll said the issue of rapists probably wouldn't apply because most pregnancies that are a result of rape are detected before 20 weeks. "Usually in rape they check the woman right away," Nuxoll told the Senate.

Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, a doctor, said, "We have a problem here. ... We are discussing a bill that potentially could make many doctors in this state felons unknowingly." The way the bill is written, he said, it redefines gestational age to calculate it from the date of fertilization, and it defines inducing labor as an abortion. "In my opinion this is a fatal flaw for this bill," said Schmidt, who noted that the Idaho Medical Association opposes it for that reason. "There are lots of other issues, and I could take a lot of time on those, but I won't. This is a fatal flaw."