Revised bill targets coercion toward abortion
BOISE – A Panhandle legislator began a second attempt Wednesday to make it illegal to coerce a woman into having an abortion after a state lawyer found his first bill potentially unconstitutional.
The new legislation, proposed by Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, includes changes intended to make it more legally viable than its predecessor, HB 161. Both bills outline various forms of physical violence and verbal threats that could land violators up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, regardless of whether the victim has the abortion.
The state attorney general’s office last week advised Nonini that parts of his first bill may not pass constitutional muster, prompting him to introduce the revised version. The attorney general has also given Nonini an opinion on his second bill, but neither the legislator nor the attorney general’s office would release it Wednesday. Nonini did say he disagrees with the opinion and has asked attorneys to examine it.
Idaho may become among the vanguard of states with this legislation, which will “prevent coercion in its most well-known forms,” he said.
“Really the intent of this legislation is to empower all Idaho mothers to choose life for their preborn children,” Nonini said.
Deputy Attorney General Bill von Tagen stated in a Feb. 13 report that parts of HB 161, Nonini’s first attempt, are redundant with statutes for battery. He also found potential problems with a convoluted passage of the bill that applies to anyone who “does or threatens to do anything that the person does not have the legal right to do to or against the pregnant woman.”
That section is “written so broadly that a court will most like(ly) find it unconstitutional,” von Tagen wrote.
The new bill instead covers acts meant to harm the “health, safety, business, calling, career, financial condition, reputation or personal relationships” of a woman.
The legislation might be redundant with existing law, but there are other instances when Idahoans can receive multiple charges for the same incident, Nonini said.
Von Tagen also noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided state laws must “inform the woman’s free choice, not hinder it.” Nonini’s first proposed law required doctors and social workers to advise a pregnant patient of “her rights and protections under the provisions” of the law or suffer legal consequences. That portion might be found an “undue burden” and may create an “unconstitutional chilling effect,” von Tagen wrote.
Nonini removed the notification requirement for the new bill.
The committee rejected an attempt by Rep. Phylis King, D-Boise, to make the coercion law also apply to anyone who threatens a woman to compel her to give birth. There could be “coercion on both sides,” she said.
King and Reps. Elaine Smith, D-Pocatello, and Anne Pasley-Stuart, D-Boise, voted against introducing the bill.