KCRCC subcommittee investigates Prop 1 signers

COEUR d’ALENE — The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee is investigating members who signed to qualify a proposed abortion-rights initiative for the November ballot.

Under Idaho’s abortion laws, among the strictest in the nation, it is a felony to provide an abortion, except in cases of rape and incest in the first trimester with a police report or to prevent the death of the mother. Doctors can be sued for a minimum of $20,000 for providing an abortion. 

Proposition 1, drafted by the group Idahoans United for Women and Families, would repeal Idaho’s abortion ban, allowing abortion up to fetal viability or beyond in case of a medical emergency. It would also codify rights to reproductive healthcare, such as access to IVF and contraception, and provide protections for physicians providing reproductive healthcare. 

“Abortion is not an issue,” said Gary Neill, a Republican who represents precinct 408 on the central committee. “Abortion is a fact. You have to accept that it exists. It’s not going to go away. You need to take a more reasonable position than is current law in Idaho.” 

Neill signed the Prop 1 initiative. He said he’s one of the subjects of the central committee’s investigation, led by KCRCC Vice Chair Tamara Bateson. 

In July, the KCRCC passed, without objection, a resolution opposing Prop 1 and resolving to “defend the unborn” through door knocking, literature distribution and participation in town halls and other events. 

During the regular August meeting, Terri Seymour, who represents precinct 402, proposed that the KCRCC form a subcommittee to investigate whether certain members “would tend to injure the good name of this organization” by signing to qualify Prop 1 for the ballot. The subcommittee was directed to report its findings and recommendations for discipline at the next regular meeting, scheduled for Tuesday. 

Neill said he received a last-minute text message this week summoning him to go before the subcommittee for an interview. He didn’t go. 

“I’m not going to go to the Star Chamber on two hours’ notice,” he said. 

KCRCC Chair Ron Jacobson said the investigation is mysterious even to him. 

“I am not a supporter of Prop 1, personally,” he said. “I am pro-life. But I have no idea what they’re trying to accomplish or what the results will be.”  

Jacobson said he’s not involved with the investigation, as his role is to run the central committee’s meetings. 

“I’ve tried to keep a distance from it because I don’t agree with it,” he said. “My position is if people wanted to sign (the initiative) to put it on the ballot, that’s their right. It doesn’t mean they’re going to support it.”  

He said he likes that Idaho voters will get the final say.  

“I hope it’s defeated, but let people vote,” he said. 

It’s unclear how the signatures came to Seymour’s attention or which precinct committeemen were appointed to the subcommittee. Seymour didn’t return requests for comment this week, nor did Bateson. 

Summer Bushnell, a blogger based in Post Falls, has published lists of voters who signed the initiative in several counties. Ballot initiative signatures are public record in Idaho. 

“I requested and received the list of Kootenai County registered voters that signed the Idaho Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act Initiative, or as I prefer to call it, let’s make murder legal in Idaho,” Bushnell said June 30 in a public Facebook post. 

Two years ago, a jury awarded more than $1.1 million to a drag performer who accused Bushnell of defaming him when she falsely claimed that he exposed himself to a crowd, including children, during Pride in the Park in June 2022. 

Bushnell did not return a request for comment for this story. 

Neill said he believes publishing the list of signatures was invasive. 

“The idea that someone would lever a petition signature against me politically — that’s really crappy politics,” he said. “That’s a low level.” 

According to Idahoans United, about 38% of the roughly 110,000 Idaho voters who signed the ballot initiative are Democrats, about 30% are Republicans, and the rest are unaffiliated.  

“A whole lot of Republicans signed Prop 1,” said Melanie Folwell, lead organizer for Idahoans United. “Thousands and thousands of them.”  

They signed for different reasons, Folwell said, ranging from a belief that Idaho’s abortion ban is government overreach to a belief that Idahoans should get a chance to decide whether the ban is overturned, even if they don’t support abortion themselves. 

“At the end of the day, this is kitchen table stuff,” she said. “This is about people’s private lives. This is about their family, their health, their future fertility. It is a complex mixture of all the things that go into family decision making, including some stuff we just can’t plan on, like sudden changes in a wanted pregnancy that result in risk to our health or risks to our lives or learning that a pregnancy is incompatible with life.” 

Neill said he thinks Idaho voters should decide.

“I haven’t voted for an initiative in a long time,” he said. “But I think the public should make the decision.” 

He pointed to other states where voters have voted in favor of abortion rights. In 2022, voters in Kansas and Kentucky rejected ballot measures recommended by their legislators that would have denied constitutional protections for abortion. 

Montana voters overwhelmingly approved a 2024 citizen-initiated constitutional amendment that allows abortion up to the point of fetal viability, while Missouri voters approved a similar ballot initiative the same year, effectively undoing the state’s near-total abortion ban. 

“The petition forces the Legislature to face the issue,” Neill said. 

Folwell said the idea that someone could be hauled before a political party for questioning because they signed a ballot initiative is “pretty offensive.” 

“I think it seems like something you would see in a communist country,” she said. 

She’s also concerned that such investigations could make Idahoans reluctant to sign future petitions. 

“I worry about the chilling effect on people signing a petition,” she said. “But I know, with the sanctity of the ballot booth, that people can practice their expression of how they feel about Prop 1 without fear of retribution.” 

The KCRCC's next meeting is set for 7 p.m. on Sept. 22 at the Kootenai County Administration Building.