Idaho became the first country to implement interstate travel restrictions abortion care since the Supreme Court repealed federal protection last year.
Gov. Brad Little (R) signed the law into law Wednesday afternoon which prohibits minors from leaving the country for abortions without parental consent. The law created a new felony crime called “abortion trafficking,” which the law determines as “an adult who, with the intent to conceal an abortion from the parent or guardian of a pregnant minor, is not exempt, obtains an abortion … or obtains an abortion-inducing drug” for a minor.
“Recruiting, harboring, or transporting a pregnant minor into this state commits the crime of abortion trafficking,” according to the law. The crime of trafficking in abortion is a felony punishable by two to five years in prison.
The law criminalizes anyone who transports a pregnant minor without parental consent in Idaho to get an abortion or the abortion pill, which means it could apply to a grandmother driving a pregnant child to the post office to pick up a package containing abortion pills or target elder brother. driving a pregnant minor to a friend’s house to arrange a home abortion.
Little explained in a letter to the Idaho House speaker that the law will not limit interstate travel for abortions for adults.
“The ‘abortion trafficking’ provision in the bill is meant to prevent unaccompanied minor girls from being taken across state lines for abortions without the knowledge and consent of their parents or guardians,” the governor wrote.
The law becomes effective 30 days after Little’s signature.
“Many minors do not have a supportive or safe parent or guardian in their life that they can ask to have an abortion,” Northwest Abortion Access Fundregional abortion fund that serves Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, said in a statement.
“It’s great that lawmakers believe that young Idahoans don’t have the capacity to make reproductive health care choices for themselves or achieve bodily autonomy, but believe that those same young people should have the capacity to raise and care for their children on their own, without support. social or economic main,” he said.
Although the law does not address crossing state lines, most people who become pregnant in Idaho do not travel across the state for an abortion. Most travel to get legal abortions in neighboring states like Washington or Oregon. This law criminalizes the act of driving a minor without parental consent to the Idaho border for the purpose of crossing state lines to obtain an abortion outside the state.
“Technically, it’s not a crime to drive in Washington state with a minor. It’s a crime to drive a minor in Idaho,” David Cohenprofessor of law at Drexel University in Philadelphia whose work focuses on constitutional law and abortion policy, told HuffPost last month.
State Representative Barbara Ehardt (R), one of the sponsors of the abortion trade law, told HuffPost last month that the purpose of the legislation is to limit the ability of minors to travel out of state without parental consent, despite the bill’s text. only discusses intrastate travel.
“It’s already illegal to get an abortion here in the state of Idaho,” said Ehardt. “So, it will take the child across the border, and if it happens without the consent of the parents, there we will be able to bear the responsibility that will destroy the rights of the parents.”
Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, condemned the law in a statement Wednesday night.
“Young people seeking abortions deserve compassion and support, not an extreme government that goes beyond this legal sanction,” he said. “Make no mistake: HB242 will have chilling effects on those who would help minors access critical abortion care, putting young people in dangerous and isolating situations.”
Idaho already has some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country. Enter a little almost total abortion ban just months after Roe v. Wade fell last year. The country has implemented a a six-week abortion ban with a private enforcement mechanismwhich is still there despite the almost universal ban also in effect.
The only exception is the affirmative defense in cases of rape or incest, and only if the victim has a police report. The law also includes an exemption to save the life of a pregnant woman, a statute that the Biden administration has implemented initially sued Idaho passed because it did not count under the state’s six-week ban.
And the state’s severe restrictions have had an immediate effect: Many OB-GYNs left the country out of fear of civil and criminal penalties to do the job, and both hospitals have forced to close labor and delivery wards due to lack of doctors.
Many pro-choice groups worry that after Roe v. Wade collapses, anti-abortion lawmakers will try to limit interstate travel. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh explained in his concurring opinion for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that interstate travel rights are still constitutionally protected. But since Idaho’s abortion trade bill was drafted in a way that only affected travel within Idaho and related to minors, lawmakers have found loopholes.
Idaho also isn’t the first state to restrict travel for abortion care. Missouri, a state known for pushing the boundaries of anti-abortion laws, has a the same law on the books since 2005. Although Missouri’s statute has a civil penalty, Idaho’s law goes further with criminal penalties and creates an entirely new crime in the state’s criminal code.