Bill Description: Senate Bill 1184 would expand the circumstances under which abortion (including late-term abortions) could be legally performed.

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Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the United States Constitution or the Idaho Constitution? Examples include restrictions on speech, public assembly, the press, privacy, private property, or firearms. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the protections guaranteed in the US Constitution or the Idaho Constitution?

Idaho law generally prohibits abortion, with a few exceptions. Abortion is the intentional termination of a human life, which is homicide. Creating exceptions for abortion always raises serious and fundamental questions because such exceptions allow acts of homicide to be committed against innocent children. 

Senate Bill 1184 makes two notable changes to Idaho's abortion law. The first amends Section 18-622, Idaho Code, to add an exception for an abortion performed because a physician determined "the abortion was necessary to prevent a serious health risk to the mother."

The bill says a "serious health risk" means "a medical condition that, in the absence of medical attention, could reasonably be expected to result in substantial impairment of a major bodily function, including any harm that would render the mother unable to conceive or carry a pregnancy in the future."

Idaho law already contains an exception for cases where a physician determines an "abortion was necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman."

An exception for “preventing death” is a much more narrow one than “substantial impairment,” and it requires a more objective determination. Changing the law in this manner is likely to result in more abortions being performed based on more subjective criteria. 

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The second change this bill would make is to create an exception for an abortion that was "performed or attempted by a physician" when two "physicians have certified in writing that, in such physician's reasonable medical judgment, the fetus was diagnosed with a lethal fetal anomaly."

The bill would define a "lethal fetal anomaly" as "a profound and irreversible congenital anomaly, birth defect, or genetic abnormality that is incompatible with sustained life after birth."

It says, "The term does not include the numerous birth defects, chromosomal abnormalities, or genetic mutations that are compatible with extended survival after birth, such as Down syndrome."

An abortion performed for this reason would require the physician to inform the mother, "both verbally and in writing that perinatal hospice and perinatal palliative care services are available as an alternative to abortion."

There are several reasons why this provision is troubling. One is that diagnosing birth defects, chromosomal abnormalities, and genetic mutations is an inexact science with the potential for misdiagnosis. Some children who have received such diagnoses have been born without the anticipated condition.

Additionally concerning are the standards of "sustained life" and "extended survival" that would be used to decide which children could legally be killed before birth. How long must the “extended survival” period be before a child is protected under the law?

As with the bill's other provision, this change is likely to result in more abortions being performed.

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