State abortion ban uncertain

POCATELLO, Idaho – A new analysis of legislative sentiment across the nation toward banning abortion has placed Idaho in the uncertain category.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, an organization that is based in New York, concludes that Idaho is among nine states where “legislative factors are uncertain but warrant concern” should appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court in the next few years produce a majority willing to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed a woman’s right to an abortion.

That would clear the way for states to adopt their own policies on abortion. The analysis found 21 states much more likely to impose a ban and 20 less likely.

Although the Idaho Legislature has taken steps in the past several years to more strictly regulate abortion, the state’s leading anti-abortion activist agrees that chances of passing a complete ban would be limited, at least initially.

“I don’t think we have a pro-life Legislature,” said David Ripley, the one-time pro-choice strategist who founded the anti-abortion Idaho Chooses Life organization in the mid-1990s.

“I actually don’t think under this current situation we could outlaw abortion in Idaho,” Ripley said.

But while Lee Flinn of the Idaho Women’s Network has a similar view, she predicted that a reversal of the 1973 federal court ruling would trigger a huge fight over legalized abortion in Idaho — a fight Ripley believes anti-abortion forces would eventually win.

“The people of Idaho are pro-life, but the Legislature, that’s a different story,” he maintained.

He found himself on the other side during the politically wrenching debate over banning abortion in 1990.

The Legislature approved what would have been the most restrictive abortion law in the country at the time, only to see then-Democratic Gov. Cecil Andrus veto the bill.

In the past several years the Legislature has voted to ban late-term abortions, require women to undergo some form of counseling before obtaining abortions and impose restrictions on teenage abortions.

The courts ultimately threw out the late-term abortion ban, and legal wrangling over the other laws has kept them from being fully enforced.

“So many restrictions are put on abortion in Idaho,” Flinn says. “Yes, abortion is legal. … However, is it really accessible? No, it’s not.”

Abortions in Idaho have decreased significantly since 1980, when 2,553 were performed.

During 1990, the number was down to 1,390, and it was down another 60 percent during 2002, when there were 829, according to the most recent statistics that were compiled by the Department of Health and Welfare.

Only four doctors perform abortions in Idaho – one in the Pocatello area and three in Boise.