An Idaho state senator tried to remove rape and incest from the state's abortion ban exceptions.
One of Senator Scott Herndon's (R-Sagle) two abortion bills will be printed. It attempts to fix confusion over ectopic pregnancies.
The other would have removed rape and incest as affirmative defenses in our current abortion law. However, it died in committee.
"This legislation basically seeks to offer equal protection under the law to all children conceived," Sen. Herndon told the committee.
Under his bill, performing an abortion would only be legal if it was to save the life of a pregnant woman.
He likened his efforts to Martin Luther King Jr's civil rights work.
"It's kind of auspicious that today is Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and his purpose was, and he spent 13 years advancing the civil rights of people based on certain characteristics and this does the same thing," Sen. Herndon said.
"I would respectfully and forcefully disagree with comparing Martin Luther King and his goal of equal protection when it comes to racism and segregation, to compare that to what we're discussing today," said Democratic Sen. Melissa Wintrow.
She asked Herndon to clarify if the bill would force a young teenage girl raped by a family member to carry the child to term.
His response was that Idaho wouldn't be forcing anyone to carry a child to term.
"Some people could describe the situation that you're talking about as the opportunity to have a child in those terrible circumstances if the rape actually occurred," Sen. Herndon said.
"I think that's an all-new low. I think it's medieval," Sen. Wintrow said. "It basically strips victimhood away from women who have been brutally raped, assaulted by either somebody they know, and a family member or not."
A motion to print this bill failed. Senator Ben Toews of Coeur d'Alene was the only senator who voted for it.
Another abortion bill sponsored by Herndon did move forward.
It attempts to clear up language in current Idaho law. It would change the definition of abortion to one that more closely aligns with the definition from the 1800s, he said.
"We are shifting the focus from the termination of a clinically diagnosable pregnancy to the intentional killing of a living human embryo or fetus," Sen. Herndon said.
It would also define embryo or fetus to mean 'any human in utero.'
He says the changes offer clarity for doctors in handling things like ectopic pregnancies - when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus and is not viable.
He says his bill would allow abortions in those cases and when a fetus dies in the womb.
"Clearly in all of those cases, you would not be subject to a criminal abortion prosecution," Sen. Herndon said.
Wintrow says these kinds of bills should give people in Idaho pause, "Lawmakers who are not physicians are trying to make laws about our health, and that always is wrong, and it could go awry and that is, it's inappropriate."
The two Democratic senators on the committee, Wintrow and Sen. James Ruchti voted against introducing the bill.
It could get a public hearing in the coming weeks.
