Statement on Idaho Anti-Abortion Legislation

BOISE – Today, Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii (PPVNH) condemned the state legislature for passing a harmful anti-abortion bill out of committee. The Senate State Affairs Committee held a hearing on Senate Bill 1243, which would require providers to tell a patient where they can obtain assistance in locating a health care provider with whom they can consult about reversing a medication abortion, an unproven procedure with no basis in science. In addition, this bill would require the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to publish printed material and a website with this false information.

 “Everybody deserves accurate information and comprehensive medical care and this bill does the exact opposite,” said Mistie Tolman, Idaho Public Affairs Manager at PPVNH.  “This reckless bill is bad medicine and a clear indication that legislators need to leave the practice of medicine to medical professionals. Reversing a medication abortion is an unproven procedure with no basis in science. The legislature should focus on measures that actually improve access to health care. Since they aren’t, we will never stop fighting for high-quality, nonjudgmental, medically accurate health care and education.”

Because there is no credible, medically accepted evidence that a medication abortion can be reversed, this law is opposed by medical experts, including the American Medical Association (AMA) and American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). If this law goes into effect it would force doctors to provide all patients seeking a safe, legal abortion — even patients who cannot have a medication abortion or who have chosen a surgical procedure — with medically inaccurate and misleading information that could be harmful to their health.

In 2016, a federal district court judge concluded a challenge to a similar 2015 Arizona law that would have forced doctors to mislead patients by telling them that it may be possible to “reverse” a medication abortion. The parties agreed to end the case following the state legislature’s actions to repeal this dangerous mandate that Governor Doug Ducey signed despite that it was contrary to all medical evidence.

Senate Republicans appear determined to push this bill through and will hold a floor debate this month.