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Eye On Boise

Questions, concerns about bill…

Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston, questioned Right to Life of Idaho President Jason Herring about why the bill requires a list of free ultrasound providers to be given to women, but then still requires another one to be done by the abortion provider. "I don't know what the cost is. I've heard $200, I've heard clear up to $4,000," Lodge said. "But I did look up one of my bills from a breast ultrasound this summer, and the cost, with the radiology group reading it and the ultrasound itself was $914. ... That's my concern. ... Can it just be that they've had the ultrasound, and signed off at that point?"

Herring responded, "That's a valid concern. The provider of the abortion is not going to accept a signed statement from the life-affirming care center that this woman has had an ultrasound, they're going to want to do their own ultrasound for their own reasons, their own diagnostic. It is an extra piece of informed consent to try to get the woman in a life-affirming environment."

A Boise physician, Dr. Heather Hammerstedt, told the senators, "I feel strongly that this bill should not pass. The Idaho Legislature is mandating that a specific portion of its population undergo a medical procedure. .. The standard of care should be determined by those providing that care." She compared the bill to requiring doctors to perform a spinal tap on every person with a headache, because it would be indicated for some, or requiring all children to be vaccinated, even if their parents object. "Do not allow your real concern for the unborn to intervene in the rights of the patient or of the medical profession," she said.



Eye On Boise

News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.