BOISE — A Senate panel Tuesday advanced a measure that would outlaw nearly all abortions in conservative Idaho by banning them once a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
The legislation makes providing an abortion to a woman whose embryo has detectible cardiac activity punishable by up to five years in prison, and it would allow the woman who receives the abortion to sue the provider.
After passing the Republican-led Senate State Affairs Committee, the measure now goes to the full Senate and has already cleared the House.
It contains a “trigger provision,” which means it wouldn’t go into effect unless a federal appeals court somewhere in the country upholds similar legislation from another state. Similar bills have been passed in several other states, and some are already being litigated. Earlier this year, a federal court temporarily blocked a fetal heartbeat bill in South Carolina.Idaho’s measure allows abortions in the case of rape, incest or a medical emergency. Fetal cardiac activity can be detected as early as six weeks using an invasive vaginal ultrasound — before many women discover they are pregnant.
What passed was a revised version that eliminates what supporters said was an inadvertent wording error that could have led to the prosecution of health care providers for performing any abortion.
Opponents of the bill said Tuesday that the exceptions of rape, incest and medical emergency are so vague or difficult to meet that they would often prevent abortions in those situations.
“It places physicians in an impossible position between the law and providing evidence-based, individualized and medically necessary care to their patients,” said Lauren Bramwell of the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho.
The exception for rape and incest would likely be impossible for many women to meet, opponents say, because Idaho law prevents the release of police reports in active investigations.