Abortion bills introduced, put on hold

BOISE – Two bills regulating abortions were introduced to the Senate State Affairs Committee on Friday, but Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis won’t give them hearings until the attorney general issues an opinion about their chances of surviving a court battle.

“I’m tired of writing laws in an area that’s important to me and then finding they don’t survive judicial scrutiny,” Davis said.

One bill, sponsored by 1st District congressional candidate Rep. Bill Sali, R-Kuna, requires women under 18 to obtain permission from a parent or guardian before getting an abortion, except in the case of a medical emergency or sexual assault.

Sen. Hal Bunderson, R-Meridian, is sponsoring another regarding informed consent, mandating that women be educated on issues such as fetal development before getting an abortion.

Idaho lawmakers have passed parental consent laws before, but all were overturned in court after costly battles. Some legislative leaders are concerned Bunderson’s and Sali’s bills will cost taxpayers even more in court fees.

Davis said he was “disappointed that in an effort to try to hurry it along,” neither Bunderson nor Sali cleared their bills with Attorney General Lawrence Wasden before introducing them, as Davis said he’d asked them to do.

“I don’t want to hear an opinion from those of us who will be passionate on one side,” Davis said. “I really want to see from the attorney general that this (bill), as written, word for word, comma for comma, is going to survive judicial scrutiny. Otherwise, Idaho is left with some of the most soft abortion laws in the country.”

Kriss Bivens Cloyd, spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office, said the office is reviewing both bills and should finish by early next week.

The parental consent law passed last year was rejected by the U.S District Court. The state is appealing the decision to the 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sali said he expects the circuit court to overturn the lower court’s ruling and uphold the parental consent law, but added that his bill presents an even more unassailable version.

The bill is virtually identical to Arizona’s parental consent law, Sali said, which gives girls the option of going to a judge for permission to terminate a pregnancy rather than to their parents.

The Arizona law also has survived a challenge in the 9th Circuit Court.

“We have spent several hundred thousand dollars defending that law,” Sali said. “We will be walking away from that investment in that law by passing this statute.”

This raises the question of whether a new parental consent law would moot a decision from that court to overturn the previous law, which would require the state pay substantial court fees for both sides of the case, Davis said.

Davis said after the meeting that he wants Wasden or a deputy attorney general at the bill hearings to answer such questions.

The American Civil Liberties Union opposes both bills, said Marty Durand, lobbyist for the ACLU Idaho chapter.

Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett of Ketchum and fellow Democrat Sen. Edgar Malepeai of Pocatello voted against the introduction of both bills.

Senate Assistant Majority Leader Joe Stegner of Lewiston opposed just the parental consent bill. He said he always apposes parental consent abortion legislation because he feels the current law is adequate.

He wasn’t sure whether he’d support the informed consent bill.

“These are not fun issues,” Stegner said.