Two big hearings are happening simultaneously this morning: A hearing in the Lincoln Auditorium on HB 154, the House-passed bill to add new restrictions on abortions performed by medication rather than by surgery, which is being considered by the Senate State Affairs Committee; and a hearing in the House State Affairs Committee on HB 243, the bill to revamp Idaho’s concealed weapon permit laws. You can listen live here to either of the hearings.

Anti-abortion activist David Ripley of Idaho Chooses Life presented HB 154 to the Senate panel. “As of 2012, 38 percent of Idaho abortions were being performed by RU- 486,” Ripley said, telling the committee he believes the bill would protect women’s safety. Kerry Uhlenkott of Right of Life of Idaho, said the intent is to ban so-called “webcam abortions,” which she said have been performed in other states, where a patient never sees a doctor in person. “We want to be pre-emptive and ban this practice before it becomes a reality here,” she said. “Eighteen states already have passed similar legislation.”

Marilyn Scott Francis of Pocatello, former executive director of the Pregnancy Crisis Center in Twin Falls, told the committee she spoke on the phone to a horrified patient who had taken RU-486. “She had given birth to a tiny, tiny baby in her underclothes,” she told the lawmakers.

Hannah Brass Greer of Planned Parenthood told the committee, “Without a doubt this bill has nothing to do with safety.” She called it “yet another attempt to bully and burden abortion providers.” Kathy Griesmyer of the Idaho ACLU said, “It is about preventing a woman, no matter the circumstance, from having all medically approved options available to her.” Cindy Gross told the committee, “Politicians with no medical training have no business telling doctors to ignore their own medical training.”

Ripley said the Idaho Medical Association has raised concerns that the bill as written could prevent treatment of ectopic pregnancies, a life-threatening condition, so the sponsors have agreed to an amendment to the definition of “abortifacient” to add, “Nothing in this definition shall apply when used to treat an ectopic pregnancy.” Ripley said he’s asking the committee to send the bill to the Senate’s amending order to add that change.

In the House committee, on the gun bill, Dakota Moore, lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, told lawmakers, “We believe that it is an inherent right, the possession of firearms.” HB 243 would allow the carrying of concealed weapons without a permit outside city limits in Idaho, removing a requirement that the person be engaged in a "lawful outdoor activity;" would eliminate the current exemption from the permit requirement for elected officials; and make other changes.

Greg Pruett of the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance spoke against the bill. “It strips rights away from people that already have it,” he said, by removing the exemption for elected and appointed public officials. “Our estimates are that up to 30,000 people currently have permitless carry in the state of Idaho under the current code.” His group sponsored HB 89, the so-called “constitutional carry” bill, to do away with concealed weapon permits in Idaho; that measure didn’t get a hearing.

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