Reproductive rights advocates mark anniversary of Roe v. Wade
"Warning, this is not a surgical instrument, keep abortion safe and legal," reads a sign with a drawing of a clothes hanger at the 2023 Coeur d'Alene Women's March.
Photo courtesy of Josiah Mannion
A marcher holds up a sign with the text, "Medical freedom equals women's rights" during the 2023 Women's March in Coeur d'Alene.
COEUR d’ALENE — Local reproductive rights advocates upheld the Jan. 22 anniversary of our Supreme Court's landmark confirmation of every American woman's reproductive rights in Roe v. Wade by addressing the current state of such freedoms in Idaho.
The Kootenai County Women's March, planned for Saturday at McEuen Park, was postponed due to weather.
Laura Tenneson, part of a team that has organized concerned citizens in Coeur d’Alene, said events like these unify like-minded individuals and connect friends and neighbors affected by access to abortion.
Our Supreme Court removed the right to choose, determined in 1973 by its decision on Roe v. Wade, in June 2022.
Reproductive freedom is a banner that Tenneson thinks everyone should rally behind, believing medical autonomy is an inherent right.
“I believe that nobody is free until everybody is free, and that women aren’t free as long as they don’t have autonomy over their own bodies. To be honest and realistic, abortion was never accessible in the state of Idaho, even before Roe v. Wade was repealed. There weren’t clinics where you could just go and get an abortion, and we don’t have Planned Parenthood,” Tenneson said.
A majority of Supreme Court justices recently maintained that Idaho could uphold its abortion ban, even if medical emergencies were present — including, but not limited to, pregnancy-related infections, preeclampsia or severe bleeding.
The Center for Reproductive Rights filed Adkins v. State of Idaho in September 2023 to clarify what circumstances qualify as medical emergency exceptions in our state's abortion laws. The abortion ban, now codified in Idaho law, includes a potential prison term of five years for anyone who performs or assists in an abortion.
“I know, based on many studies, that abortion can mean the difference between life or death for many women, and that women’s lives have been put in extreme risk as a result of the total abortion ban, including in the state of Idaho,” Tenneson said.
Another concerned pro-choice advocate, Lydia Baune, agrees with Tenneson’s assertion that merely being a person who can become pregnant in Idaho now comes with “extreme risks.”
The loss of abortion protections in 2022 was a shock to Baune.
“I felt a wide range of emotions when Roe v. Wade was repealed, from hopelessness, to fear to disbelief. Abortion bans of any kind are used to control one’s ability to make choices about their own body,” Baune said.
A new date for the Kootenai County Women's March has not yet been set.
A marcher holds up a sign with the text, "Medical freedom equals women's rights" during the 2023 Women's March in Coeur d'Alene.