Idaho governor signs law banning adults from helping minors get abortions
The Republican governor of Idaho, Brad Little, signed a bill into law on Wednesday that makes it illegal for an adult to help a minor get an abortion without parental consent.
The law is the first of its kind in the US, creating a new crime of “abortion trafficking”, barring adults from obtaining abortion pills for a minor or “recruiting, harboring or transporting the pregnant minor” without the consent of the minor’s parent or guardian.
Anyone convicted of breaking the law will face two to five years in prison and could be sued by the minor’s parent or guardian.
Parents who raped their child will not be able to sue, though the criminal penalties for anyone who helped the minor obtain an abortion will remain in effect.
To sidestep violating a constitutional right to travel between states, the law makes illegal only the in-state segment of a trip to an out-of-state abortion provider.
Opponents have promised a legal battle.
“Yet again, Idaho’s governor disregarded constituents and signed HB 242 into law, creating the nation’s first crime of so-called ‘abortion trafficking’,” the
Idaho state director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates-West said on Twitter.
“This legislation is despicable, and we’re going to do everything in our power to stop it.”
Idaho is one of 13 states that in effect ban abortion in all stages of pregnancy, and one of a handful that have laws penalizing those who help people of any age obtain abortions.
State leaders in Washington, Oregon and California have promoted the west coast as a safe haven for abortion procedures. Lawmakers in Oregon and Washington are considering bills to shield abortion providers and patients from criminal liability.
The Oregon bill would allow physicians to provide abortion to anyone regardless of age, and would bar them in certain cases from disclosing that information to parents.
Thirty-six states require parental involvement in a minor’s decision to have an abortion, though most allow exceptions under certain circumstances like medical emergencies, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group supporting abortion rights.