Abortion Bill Compromise Hits House Wall Committee Members Can’t Agree On Senate Amendments To Bill Originally Promoted By Idaho Family Forum

The religious right once again has rejected Senate President Pro Tem Jerry Twiggs’ bid to win approval for a bill requiring minors seeking abortions to get parental consent.

Republican state Rep. Bill Sali said Thursday that Twiggs’ attempt at a compromise on far more sweeping legislation endorsed by the House left open a gaping loophole that anti-abortion activists fear physicians would use to perform abortions on juveniles virtually without restriction.

“In your opinion,” Twiggs quickly replied.

He and Sali, a Meridian lawyer, were among six House and Senate conferees continuing negotiations that began Tuesday on how to reconcile dramatically different versions of House Bill 610. It originally was promoted by the Idaho Family Forum as a way to keep Idaho abortion laws constitutional but make them as restrictive as the U.S. Supreme Court will allow.

But the Idaho Family Forum and other anti-abortion groups said Senate amendments, including removal of extensive physician reporting requirements, essentially gutted their original proposal. And they have kept the pressure on House conferees not to budge on provisions they contend are necessary to effectively enforce even a simple parental consent requirement.

For example, Sali said the groups would not approve of any bill that included an exception to the need for parental consent in cases when doctors believe an abortion is necessary “to prevent the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the woman.”

There is no constitutional requirement to have such an exception in the law, he argued. And Sali said physicians might feel there never is a need to seek consent because any pregnancy by a juvenile could meet the criteria by threatening her future fertility - a “major bodily function.”

“If the Senate is dead set on having this exception, we might as well conclude the meeting,” Sali said.

“It sounds like the representative has thrown down the gauntlet,” Twiggs responded.

Similar exchanges continued for about an hour before Twiggs adjourned the meeting while both sides sought to refine their positions in hopes of trying again on Friday.

“To the people of this state, parental consent makes a lot of sense and should be implemented,” said Twiggs, a Blackfoot Republican.

Twiggs’ latest proposal would have excised all the original nine-page bill’s language that was aimed specifically at addressing constitutional questions in Idaho’s existing law. It also sought middle ground on a judicial bypass mechanism allowing minors unable or unwilling to get their parents’ permission for an abortion to go to a judge.

The Idaho Family Forum measure would have required the judge to be in the county where the minor lived. The initial Senate amendments, addressing concerns about privacy, would have allowed juveniles to go to any judge in the state. Twiggs’ compromise would have limited that to any judge within the minor’s home judicial district, consisting of several counties.

That, however, was about the only issue on which the two sides even approached agreement. That led House Speaker Michael Simpson and Republican Floor Leader Bruce Newcomb to urge Sali later Thursday to find a way to salvage at least the parental consent provision from the negotiations.

“We don’t want to walk away with nothing,” Newcomb said. “We’ve come too far not to get there.”