Group Wants Court To Void Anti-Abortion Initiative

An abortion rights group wants the Idaho Supreme Court to void all the signatures that have been collected so far under the Idaho Citizens Alliance’s anti-abortion initiative.

Janet Crepps, attorney for the Denver-based Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to invalidate the title prepared by the attorney general’s office for the initiative.

Crepps told the Supreme Court that title is misleading and does not tell voters that if they approve the initiative, they will be enacting substantial changes in the state’s abortion laws.

The Supreme Court took the case under advisement and will rule later.

It’s more than a battle over semantics. If the abortion rights group wins, the alliance would have to start over gathering signatures to put the question before voters. Sponsors need more than 41,000 signatures by next July to qualify for next year’s general election ballot.

Deputy Attorney General William von Tagen told the court the title is proper, and what Crepps wants is not authorized by Idaho’s initiative law.

Von Tagen said when a proposed initiative is presented, the attorney general’s office must prepare a 20-word short title and a brief summary of what the initiative seeks, not to exceed 200 words. He said the titles prepared by the office on the latest initiative attempted to present it in a straightforward, factual manner with the emotion and value-laden arguments removed.

“What petitioners (the abortion rights group) wants is not only a legal interpretation but a legal interpretation that they agree with,” Von Tagen said.

“We find that is a common problem here, counselor,” Chief Justice Charles McDevitt told him.

Crepps said it wasn’t the attorney general’s duty to “sanitize” the initiative but to make it clear what its basic purpose was.