<\/p>\n
Voters in Idaho will decide in November whether to overturn a state law that bans abortion in nearly all circumstances.\n<\/p>\n
The initiative, known as the Reproductive Freedom & Privacy Act, officially qualified for the November ballot Monday after organizers submitted more than 110,000 signatures \u2014 well above the 70,725 signatures required under Idaho law, and the most ever collected for a qualified ballot initiative in state history, according to Idahoans United for Women and Families, the group behind the measure.<\/p>\n
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Melanie Folwell, executive director of Idahoans United for Women and Families, which backs the initiative, said in a statement that she was \u201cimmensely proud of the foundation we have built, and to continue that outreach into the fall.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have known from early on this issue was deeply personal and had the ability to break through divisive partisan frames we are navigating nationally right now and certainly, very accurately here in Idaho,\u201d said Folwell, according to\u00a0The Idaho Capital Sun.\u00a0\u201cWhen it comes to making the tough decisions in our lives and in our families, we call the shots and not the government. That is something that has resonated in every corner of the state.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The Stanton Public Policy Center, a pro-life group, denounced the ballot measure in a\u00a0statement\u00a0provided to The Christian Post, saying that since Idaho\u2019s \u201cDefense of Life Act\u201d took effect in 2022, an estimated 6,000 lives have been saved from abortion.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIdaho has demonstrated that we can protect both women and their children, and we should continue building a culture where every mother is surrounded with hope, practical resources, and life-affirming care,\u201d said Stanton CEO Brandi Swindell.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot go backward to a system that treats abortion as the solution to women\u2019s challenges. Fifty years of unfettered access to abortion did not solve the societal, familial, and personal challenges women face. Instead, abortion culture placed an undue burden on women and paved the way for abortion abuse.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Idaho\u2019s Legislature passed the Defense of Life Act in 2020 as a trigger law, meaning it was designed to take effect automatically if the U.S. Supreme Court overturned\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/em>. That happened in 2022, and the law went into effect that August, making Idaho one of several states to enact a near-total abortion ban following the\u00a0Dobbs\u00a0<\/em>decision.\n<\/p>\n The state law was challenged by the Biden administration, with the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that it violated the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.\n<\/p>\n The law was later challenged by the Biden administration, whose Department of Justice argued it conflicted with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden had issued guidance stating that EMTALA required hospital emergency staff to perform abortions when necessary to stabilize a patient.\n<\/p>\n A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Idaho in September 2023, overturning a lower court decision in favor of the Biden HHS guidance.\n<\/p>\n The Supreme Court\u00a0heard oral arguments\u00a0in the case in April 2024, with U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar rejecting the claim that the case was about abortion bans in general.\n<\/p>\n \u201cEven states that have sharply restricted access to abortion after\u00a0Dobbs<\/em>\u00a0generally allow exceptions to safeguard the mother\u2019s health,\u201d Prelogar said. \u201cBut Idaho makes termination a felony punishable by years of imprisonment unless it is necessary to prevent the woman\u2019s death.\u201d\n<\/p>\n The Supreme Court issued a brief\u00a0per curiam opinion\u00a0in June 2024, concluding that the case had been \u201cimprovidently granted,\u201d meaning that the high court should not have heard arguments.\n<\/p>\n In March 2025, shortly after President Donald Trump was sworn in to his second term, the federal government agreed to drop the case against Idaho, allowing the state law to remain in effect.\n<\/p>\n Idaho Attorney General Ra\u00fal Labrador released a\u00a0statement\u00a0last year celebrating the dismissal, saying, \u201cthere is no conflict between EMTALA and Idaho\u2019s Defense of Life Act.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal of each is to save lives in every circumstance, both the mother and their unborn child,\u201d stated Labrador at the time. \u201cWe are grateful that meddlesome DOJ litigation on this issue will no longer be an obstacle to Idaho enforcing its laws. Idaho will continue defending life as intended by the legislature and our people.\u201d\n<\/p>\n This article was originally published at The Christian Post. Photo Credit: Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Voters in Idaho will decide in November whether to overturn a state law that bans abortion in nearly all circumstances. The initiative, known as the Reproductive Freedom & Privacy Act, officially qualified for the November ballot Monday after organizers submitted more than 110,000 signatures \u2014 well above the 70,725 signatures required under Idaho law, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[205,1569,1971,1972,10168,126,3148],"class_list":["post-30557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-abortion","tag-ban","tag-decide","tag-fate","tag-idaho","tag-november","tag-voters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Share your prayers for the protection of the unborn below.<\/h4>\n