Idaho Senate panel rejects Texas-modeled abortion law

By KEITH RIDLER

Associated Press

BOISE — A Senate panel on Monday rejected a proposed law modeled after a Texas law that would outlawed nearly all abortions in conservative Idaho by banning them once a fetal heartbeat could be detected.

The Senate State Affairs Committee deadlocked 4-4, killing the plan. But a revised version could come before lawmakers later this session.

Idaho already has a “fetal heartbeat” law passed in 2020. But it contains a “trigger provision,” meaning it won’t go into effect unless a federal appeals court somewhere in the country upholds similar legislation from another state. That trigger hasn't so far been tripped.

The proposal sought to amend that law to allow family members to sue a doctor who performed an abortion after a fetal heartbeat could be detected, making the law active now. Fetal cardiac activity can be detected as early as six weeks, before many women discover they are pregnant.

Blaine Conzatti of the Idaho Family Policy Center told lawmakers that approving the proposed Idaho law would, like in Texas, immediately end abortions in the state after six weeks of pregnancy.

Lawmakers opposing the plan said such a law conflicted with existing Idaho laws by allowing family members to have standing to file a lawsuit.