Senate Oks Both Abortion Measures Family Forum Doesn’t Like Amended Version Of Its Bill

Two anti-abortion bills passed the Senate on Friday, amid warnings from opponents that the state faces a million-dollar court fight to defend them.

HB576, which would ban so-called “partial-birth” abortions, was sent to Gov. Phil Batt on a 24-11 vote. Two opinions from the Idaho attorney general have declared the bill unconstitutional.

HB610, which would require a parent’s consent before a minor could get an abortion and would revamp other provisions of Idaho’s abortion laws, also passed the Senate 24-11. But Dennis Mansfield, head of the Idaho Family Forum, the group that originally proposed the bill, disavowed it Friday. Mansfield said amendments added to the measure make it unacceptable.

That bill goes back to the House, to see if the House agrees with the Senate’s amendments. House Speaker Mike Simpson said the House will consider that issue Monday. If the amendments are approved, a final, formal vote to send the bill to the governor would come in the House on Wednesday.

“If we don’t concur, my guess is it’s dead meat,” Simpson said. “A conference committee is not going to work out the differences on this in the last week of the session.”

During the Senate debate, Senate Republicans fired back after weeks of being on the receiving end of political potshots from Mansfield. Senate President pro tem Jerry Twiggs, R-Blackfoot, made it clear he has no intention of letting Mansfield and the religious right take over the party.

“We represent a broad spectrum of people in this state, and we need to listen to everybody,” Twiggs declared. “We cannot have one group dictating public policy to us. The Republican Party encompasses everybody, not just a certain group.”

Twiggs said the amended bill still does everything the Family Forum said it wanted in its original statement of purpose for the bill. The measure still requires parental consent for minors to get abortions, he said, and it makes changes in current Idaho abortion laws designed to ensure that they’re constitutional.

“I stand before you today claiming to be a disciple if Christ, a Christian … God will love you every bit as much after this vote as He does now, regardless of how you vote,” said Sen. Gordon Crow, R-Hayden.

Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, tried several parliamentary maneuvers to kill or amend both of the bills, but none won a majority of votes.

One of Schroeder’s moves, to amend the partial-birth measure to limit its application to viable fetuses, won support from Sen. Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene, along with Sen. Clyde Boatright, R-Rathdrum. But the effort died on a 22-12 vote.

Schroeder said that change would make the partial-birth measure constitutional.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: How they voted Here’s how North Idaho senators voted on the two abortion bills. On HB610 as amended, which requires parental consent for minors to get abortions and revises existing abortion laws: Sens. Gordon Crow, R-Hayden; Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint; Marguerite McLaughlin, D-Orofino; and Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene, voted in favor. Sen. Clyde Boatright, R-Rathdrum, voted against. The bill passed 24-11, and now goes back to the House to see if representatives will agree to the Senate’s amendments to the bill. On HB576, which bans so-called “partial-birth” abortions: Crow, Keough, McLaughlin and Riggs voted in favor. Boatright voted against. The bill also passed 24-11. It now goes to Gov. Phil Batt.