Kelcie Moseley-Morris, States Newsroom

An all-male panel of anti-abortion religious leaders from around the country met in Georgia Friday night to discuss the strategies that should be used to end abortion in every state at any stage of pregnancy, without exceptions for rape and incest, and with criminal punishment for the pregnant person in line with existing criminal penalties for murder, which includes the death penalty.

The panel was part of a week-long series of events hosted by Operation Save America, an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim religious group that wants all Americans to follow “God’s law” and their interpretation of the Christian gospel. Many of the events were held in Douglasville, Georgia, at Pray’s Mill Baptist Church, which broke away from the Southern Baptist Convention for supposed acceptance of liberal social justice views regarding race and gender. Tuesday through Friday, the group started its mornings by protesting outside of A Preferred Women’s Health Center, an abortion clinic near Atlanta.

Friday’s speakers included Wisconsin-based Operation Save America Director Jason Storms and former OSA director Rusty Thomas, along with Arizona-based End Abortion Now communications director Zachary Conover, Georgia Right to Life President Ricardo Davis, and Gabriel Rench, a member of the extremist Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho.

Speakers focused on equal protection bills in state legislatures

The theme of OSA’s national event was unity, and highlighted divisions within anti-abortion circles over what they described as the proper approach and response to legislation that seeks to limit or entirely restrict abortion procedures. The moderator of the panel, Derin Stidd, opened by asking, “Why do you all hate women?” to which the men laughed.

Rench then joked about not giving the microphone to Conover and said, “We don’t give him a voice like women,” then added, “Bad joke.”

The comments were in jest, but in line with remarks from OSA speakers throughout the week, including another comment from Rench, who said the church was wrong to allow women to be preachers.

On Thursday, anti-Islam speaker Raymond Ibrahim said, “If you look at a country, and the best they can come up with for a president is a woman, there’s something wrong about that. That doesn’t mean women aren’t smart or capable, I believe that, but if the very best — the crème de la crème — is a woman, that tells me something about the men when it comes to positions of authority and leadership.”

The panel focused on legislation they call “equal protection” bills, such as Georgia’s House Bill 496, also called the Georgia Prenatal Equal Protection Act, which was introduced in February but did not advance in the state’s House of Representatives. An “equal protection” bill, by their definition, is one that adds criminal penalties to a pregnant person for the intentional termination of a pregnancy at any stage, with no exceptions for rape or incest. The law would make an exception if the abortion was performed to prevent the pregnant person’s “imminent death or great bodily injury.”

Storms said OSA has advocated for similar bills in more than a dozen states, including Alabama, Arizona, Missouri, Kentucky and Oklahoma. So far, no states have passed an “equal protection” bill, but several, including Georgia, did pass what anti-abortion advocates call “heartbeat bills” that ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant. Those who advocate for “equal protection” bills call themselves “abolitionists,” co-opting language from the movement to abolish slavery, while the “pro-life” community has advocated for more politically expedient bills like six-week bans. Storms and other panelists called the six-week bans weak, even though they expressed understanding of political environments that make “equal protection” bills unlikely to become reality.

Rench said that is the case in Idaho, where many members of the state legislature are part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The church has taken an official position that rape and incest exceptions are acceptable, and bills that have not included those exceptions, such as one introduced by OSA-endorsed Sen. Scott Herndon of Sandpoint, have gone nowhere in the Idaho Legislature. Christ Church and its followers have taken an approach they dubbed “smashmouth incrementalism,” which acknowledges that change can be achieved through gradual reformation and repentance in the country’s culture.

But Rench said he intends to keep working with Herndon and others to bring equal protection bills back in the next legislative session to keep pushing for it. Davis, president of Georgia Right to Life, said his organization will push for their bill again in the next session as well, and said he’s confident they’ll get it done the next time around.

How is abortion going to end? Maybe with civil war, speaker says

Thomas, who was a longtime director of Operation Save America before Storms, said incremental steps like heartbeat bills were “a lie from the pit of hell” from the very beginning, but the organization didn’t used to be politically involved because there was too much compromise and too much that needed to be changed.

Thomas said it wasn’t until pastor Matthew Trewhella, who co-founded the Milwaukee-based group Missionaries to the Preborn and is Storms’ father-in-law, wrote “The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates” that he felt like there could be progress. The book references history and biblical theology to argue that governments deemed “tyrannical” and ungodly can and should be defied. Trewhella has said he has spoken to at least 11 state legislatures across the country about the book.

“That was the first time in my life I knew we had solid rock to stand on to fight this battle politically,” he said. “That was the game changer.”

Conover’s organization, End Abortion Now, creates model legislation that grants legal personhood to fertilized eggs, which would limit in-vitro fertilization procedures, and assigns penalties to people who have abortions in addition to doctors who provide them. Some of his legislative efforts have been defeated by organizations that are against criminal penalties for pregnant people.

“It’s a dirty little secret of the pro-life industry: Their heretical teaching that has informed the types of laws they’ve supported for five decades, the lie that women should be allowed to kill their own children with immunity and impunity because they themselves are victims of abortion,” Conover said. “It is a lie that says that they are never legally culpable, however willfully or intentionally they carry out the act of taking the life.”

Regardless of the legislative strategy, the panelists agreed changing the culture of America to take on a Christian biblical worldview, which will require all pastors to take the same position on abortion as their own.

“We must see that the church plays that role culturally, to create that social tension. That’s the standard, that’s the ideology,” Storms said. “But that’s when we have to say, ‘Well, how does that flesh out in the real world?’ It doesn’t always look so pretty when we actually see that applied. How is abortion going to end? I don’t know, maybe it’s going to be a civil war, maybe it’s going to be a whole variety of other means.”

States Newsroom reproductive rights reporter Sofia Resnick contributed to this report.

The panel was part of a week-long series of events hosted by Operation Save America, an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim religious group that wants all Americans to follow “God’s law” and their interpretation of the Christian gospel. Many of the events were held in Douglasville, Georgia, at Pray’s Mill Baptist Church, which broke away from the Southern Baptist Convention for supposed acceptance of liberal social justice views regarding race and gender. Tuesday through Friday, the group started its mornings by protesting outside of A Preferred Women’s Health Center, an abortion clinic near Atlanta.

Friday’s speakers included Wisconsin-based Operation Save America Director Jason Storms and former OSA director Rusty Thomas, along with Arizona-based End Abortion Now communications director Zachary Conover, Georgia Right to Life President Ricardo Davis, and Gabriel Rench, a member of the extremist Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho.

Speakers focused on equal protection bills in state legislatures

The theme of OSA’s national event was unity, and highlighted divisions within anti-abortion circles over what they described as the proper approach and response to legislation that seeks to limit or entirely restrict abortion procedures. The moderator of the panel, Derin Stidd, opened by asking, “Why do you all hate women?” to which the men laughed.

Rench then joked about not giving the microphone to Conover and said, “We don’t give him a voice like women,” then added, “Bad joke.”

The comments were in jest, but in line with remarks from OSA speakers throughout the week, including another comment from Rench, who said the church was wrong to allow women to be preachers.

On Thursday, anti-Islam speaker Raymond Ibrahim said, “If you look at a country, and the best they can come up with for a president is a woman, there’s something wrong about that. That doesn’t mean women aren’t smart or capable, I believe that, but if the very best — the crème de la crème — is a woman, that tells me something about the men when it comes to positions of authority and leadership.”

The panel focused on legislation they call “equal protection” bills, such as Georgia’s House Bill 496, also called the Georgia Prenatal Equal Protection Act, which was introduced in February but did not advance in the state’s House of Representatives. An “equal protection” bill, by their definition, is one that adds criminal penalties to a pregnant person for the intentional termination of a pregnancy at any stage, with no exceptions for rape or incest. The law would make an exception if the abortion was performed to prevent the pregnant person’s “imminent death or great bodily injury.

Storms said OSA has advocated for similar bills in more than a dozen states, including Alabama, Arizona, Missouri, Kentucky and Oklahoma. So far, no states have passed an “equal protection” bill, but several, including Georgia, did pass what anti-abortion advocates call “heartbeat bills” that ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant. Those who advocate for “equal protection” bills call themselves “abolitionists,” co-opting language from the movement to abolish slavery, while the “pro-life” community has advocated for more politically expedient bills like six-week bans. Storms and other panelists called the six-week bans weak, even though they expressed understanding of political environments that make “equal protection” bills unlikely to become reality.

Rench said that is the case in Idaho, where many members of the state legislature are part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The church has taken an official position that rape and incest exceptions are acceptable, and bills that have not included those exceptions, such as one introduced by OSA-endorsed Sen. Scott Herndon of Sandpoint, have gone nowhere in the Idaho Legislature. Christ Church and its followers have taken an approach they dubbed “smashmouth incrementalism,” which acknowledges that change can be achieved through gradual reformation and repentance in the country’s culture.

But Rench said he intends to keep working with Herndon and others to bring equal protection bills back in the next legislative session to keep pushing for it, even though he thinks there is still injustice with criminal penalties for the pregnant person.

“What happens when you pass an abolition bill, a woman goes to trial, and then she goes to life in prison? That’s just as wicked,” Rench said. “Life in prison is just as wicked as everything else, so you’re solving one side of the equation, acting like we did a good job, but we locked that woman up in prison for 99 years like a monkey, and we’re still not treating her like a person.”

Davis, president of Georgia Right to Life, said his organization will push for their bill again in the next session as well, and said he’s confident they’ll get it done the next time around.

How is abortion going to end? Maybe with civil war, speaker says

Thomas, who was a longtime director of Operation Save America before Storms, said incremental steps like “heartbeat” bills were “a lie from the pit of hell” from the very beginning, but the organization didn’t used to be politically involved because there was too much compromise and too much that needed to be changed.

Thomas said it wasn’t until pastor Matthew Trewhella, who co-founded the Milwaukee-based group Missionaries to the Preborn and is Storms’ father-in-law, wrote “The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates” that he felt like there could be progress. The book references history and biblical theology to argue that governments deemed “tyrannical” and ungodly can and should be defied. Trewhella has said he has spoken to at least 11 state legislatures across the country about the book.

“That was the first time in my life I knew we had solid rock to stand on to fight this battle politically,” he said. “That was the game changer.”

Conover’s organization, End Abortion Now, creates model legislation that grants legal personhood to fertilized eggs, which would limit in-vitro fertilization procedures, and assigns penalties to people who have abortions in addition to doctors who provide them. Some of his legislative efforts have been defeated by organizations that are against criminal penalties for pregnant people.

“It’s a dirty little secret of the pro-life industry: Their heretical teaching that has informed the types of laws they’ve supported for five decades, the lie that women should be allowed to kill their own children with immunity and impunity because they themselves are victims of abortion,” Conover said. “It is a lie that says that they are never legally culpable, however willfully or intentionally they carry out the act of taking the life.”

Regardless of the legislative strategy, the panelists agreed changing the culture of America to take on a Christian biblical worldview, which will require all pastors to take the same position on abortion as their own.

“We must see that the church plays that role culturally, to create that social tension. That’s the standard, that’s the ideology,” Storms said. “But that’s when we have to say, ‘Well, how does that flesh out in the real world?’ It doesn’t always look so pretty when we actually see that applied. How is abortion going to end? I don’t know, maybe it’s going to be a civil war, maybe it’s going to be a whole variety of other means.”

States Newsroom reproductive rights reporter Sofia Resnick contributed to this report.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.

Heather Vahdat has been advocating for male contraceptive options for nearly a decade, but she is the first to say it is a lonely space to occupy in the health science field.

Vahdat is the executive director of the Male Contraceptive Initiative, based in Durham, North Carolina, which has been working with a single donor to provide up to $1.5 million in grants per year for emerging male birth control technologies since 2017 — and that makes it the second largest funder of that type of research in the U.S., second only to the National Institutes of Health.

At the moment, the options for men are limited to condoms and vasectomies, Vahdat said, and while vasectomies can potentially be reversed, it doesn’t always work.

Vahdat says demand for male contraceptives was already stronger than most would guess, but the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022 was a tipping point.

“After Roe fell, women looked around and said, ‘What can you do?’ and men looked around and said, ‘Crap, what can I do?’” Vahdat said. “Men are waiting for this; I think it’s really underestimated how much attention men are paying to this.”

Cody Romero, a 32-year-old single Idaho resident, said he will be happy to take any method of male contraception once it is available, especially in the current environment of abortion restrictions.

After all, even with the birth control methods that are available for women, a recent estimate showed half of the world’s yearly pregnancies are unplanned. In the United States, as of 2019 data from the Guttmacher Institute, about 45 pregnancies out of 1,000 in women between the ages of 15 and 44 were unintended.

“I don’t like the idea of getting someone pregnant. That’s scary,” Romero said. “I always feel bad for the ladies that do get on birth control and struggle with some of them. It’s like, ‘Well, this is my fault as well.’”

Romero had only heard of a study on hormonal pills for male birth control that was cut short after some of the participants experienced adverse psychological effects — that was in 2016. But he said he is open to any method, particularly since he does want children at some point and doesn’t want a vasectomy at his age.

Romero said among the men he knows, subjects like contraception are rarely talked about. But if more options became available, he thinks many of them would be interested in taking the contraception burden on themselves.

“Right now, it just feels like that’s not something they need to take care of, ‘It’s someone else’s problem’ sort of thing, that’s the impression I get,” Romero said.

Potential 10 years of birth control with injectable gel

Although male contraceptives have been discussed and researched since as early as the 1950s, Vahdat said there has been little interest from pharmaceutical companies to invest in options for men. The Male Contraceptive Initiative has provided grant funding for research at institutes such as Emory University, Baylor College of Medicine, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Yale University.

The initiative also partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to produce research released in February that assessed the demand for potential contraceptives for men across various regions of the world, including the United States, India, Africa and Vietnam. Two thousand men were surveyed in each country, and in the U.S., 78% of those surveyed said they would use male contraceptive methods if available. That included options such as hormonal pills, a gel that is rubbed into the shoulder, a nasal spray and implants or injections.

The organization is planning to replicate the survey in the U.S. to assess interest after the fall of Roe and the return of abortion regulation to the states.

One of the grants the Male Contraceptive Initiative provided in the last few years was for a hydrogel developed by Virginia-based business Contraline called ADAM, which is a similar technology in development by a company called NEXT Life Sciences.

Contraline representatives could not be reached for comment, but the ADAM technology is in use in a clinical trial in Australia that is expected to be completed by 2025.

L.R. Fox, CEO of NEXT Life, said his California-based company acquired rights to a technology that has been used in clinical trials in India for about 10 years called Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance, or RISUG. NEXT Life is calling their product Plan A.

The non-hormonal contraceptive method involves the injection of a substance called vasalgel that forms a small, flexible filter inside the vas deferens — the duct that produces sperm — and filters sperm out while allowing other fluids to pass through.

The injection would take place during a quick doctor’s visit with local anesthetic, Fox said, and he said it could potentially provide up to 10 years of birth control that could be reversed at any time. He likened it to non-hormonal IUD implants.

The company will begin clinical trials with Plan A at the end of this year, so those numbers are preliminary, according to Fox, but they are based on data from trials in India and animal studies, which he said have been promising so far. That length of time, if it holds true in clinical trials, will be much longer than similar hydrogel formulations, Fox said.

“Since the overturn of Roe, the only effective contraceptive option for men is currently a vasectomy, which solves the long-lasting problem, but is designed to be permanent,” Fox said. “Therefore, it’s primarily only used by men who are child complete at 45 or often 65 and older, so what we see is this massive demand from men who are in their 20s and 30s who are in committed relationships and who are saying they want to be able to participate in the family planning process.”

Contraception takes two, initiative leader says

The lack of investment into the development of male contraception hasn’t gone unnoticed by Fox, who said he grew up in the foster care system and saw firsthand the “devastating consequences” that can occur when someone can’t choose when to have a child.

“People aren’t recognizing the problem because they sit back and say, ‘Well, is it really needed?’ because women have a solution,” Fox said. “The assumption is we can just burden women with contraception that clearly is not sufficient.”

Fox said 50,000 people have expressed interest in participating in the clinical trials, and if all goes as planned, he hopes Plan A will have approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and roll out on the market by 2026, which is “just right around the corner,” he said.

Fox believes Plan A represents the best option because of its simplicity and potential effectiveness.

“Of course, those (pills and creams) are incredibly valuable contributions to science, but at the same time, one of the big concerns is how can you ensure effectiveness and also how do we remove user error?” Fox said. “That’s why something long lasting and reversible is so key.”

From Vahdat’s perspective, it is unrealistic to expect an option to hit the market by 2026 given all of the bureaucratic hurdles involved in clinical trials and approval that can take years to complete. A 2018 study from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development showed FDA-approved drugs and biologics spent an average of nearly 90 months — more than seven years — in the clinical trial phase.

But Vahdat does think the market in general is on a steady upward trajectory.

“What we can’t do is slow that momentum,” she said.

Vahdat said she’d love to see more investment from donors and organizations, but what will also aid the speed of bringing products to market is individuals demanding more options. Because in the meantime, the options remain limited.

“We have to stop looking at contraception as either for men or for women. Like conception, you need two people,” she said. “So with the onus being on women, we’ve kind of gendered that term, but really contraception is about two people preventing an unintended pregnancy.”

Wisconsin Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Wisconsin Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Ruth Conniff for questions: info@wisconsinexaminer.com. Follow Wisconsin Examiner on Facebook and Twitter.

Doctors and abortion providers around the country told States Newsroom the decision will likely exacerbate abortion care that has already been delayed and diminished following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to let states regulate abortion laws.

The order is scheduled to go into effect by April 14, but that could change because of appeals. The U.S. Department of Justice launched an appeals process Friday within hours of Kacsmaryk’s ruling.

“Any delay in abortion care is unnecessary and cruel, and it’s a dangerous precedent to deny access to a safe medication that science tells us is safe,” said Dr. Mollie Nisen, a family physician and abortion provider in Washington state.

Nearly simultaneously on Friday afternoon, a Washington District Court judge issued a contradictory ruling preventing the FDA from taking adverse action on mifepristone. That ruling affects the plaintiff states who brought the case, which includes 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, while the Texas case has nationwide implications. It remained unclear how the two rulings might be resolved on Friday.

As of 2020, use of mifepristone in conjunction with the drug misoprostol accounted for more than half of abortions nationwide. But in the eight months since Roe v. Wade was overturned and the FDA loosened certain regulations, the prevalence of medication abortion regimen has expanded, especially for women living in one of the 13 states that currently fully or mostly ban abortion.

Nisen said about half of her patients seeking abortion use the mifepristone and misoprostol combination rather than a surgical procedure. She also knows of patients who have managed their own abortion care at home after obtaining the drugs by mail. Like abortion providers in so-called abortion-haven states, Nisen sees patients from everywhere and is bracing for a surge in new patients following this ruling. On a recent workday, she saw patients for medication abortion from seven different states.

“People coming from as far as a seven-hour plane ride to get a five-minute procedure is what we’re looking at right now,” Nisen said.

People seek medication abortion over surgical procedures for different reasons, including cost and allergic reactions to anesthesia. But for many, it’s the only accessible abortion method, given how abortion clinics are now scattered across the country and separated by vast distances, and many of them don’t offer the surgical procedure. Until now many people have been able to avoid traveling significant distances and other delays that lead to later abortions by taking advantage of the telehealth option allowed in some states.

Additionally, doctors worry this ruling could have serious health consequences for women experiencing miscarriage, which can be life-threatening. Already providers around the country have reported that their state’s restrictive abortion laws have forced them to turn away pregnant patients even if they’re experiencing, or at risk for, serious health complications.

Ruling has implications for miscarriage management, doctor says

In a “friend of the court” brief filed in the lawsuit in February, leading medical and public health societies that include the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and the American Medical Association wrote: “Recent research has shown that prescribed mifepristone, in conjunction with misoprostol, improves safety outcomes for patients experiencing pregnancy loss.”

Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, which a pregnancy needs to progress. It’s followed by the drug misoprostol, which has other indications but also causes the uterus to expel the embryo or fetus. The FDA has recommended it be used up to 10 weeks in pregnancy; the World Health Organization says 12.

Dr. Loren Colson, a primary care physician in Idaho who is also a fellow with national advocacy group Physicians for Reproductive Health, is among those concerned for his miscarrying patients. Idaho has a near-complete ban on abortions at any stage of pregnancy. Doctors who provide abortions must prove they were trying to save the pregnant person’s life. (Similarly, survivors of rape and incest who want an abortion have to first file a police report.)

Colson said he has seen many patients at his clinic seeking care for miscarriages since the ban went into effect, and while the clinic has had difficulties securing mifepristone, the doctors have been able to use it to help those patients.

When a pregnant person miscarries, which happens in as many as 26% of all pregnancies, the pregnancy often does not completely end for weeks if not months, Colson said. According to his estimates, about 80% of patients’ pregnancies will resolve within one month, while the remaining 20% could take six weeks or longer. Mifepristone and misoprostol taken in combination after an early miscarriage has a success rate of completing miscarriages by day two in 84% of Colson’s patients, according to his data.

Misoprostol alone – which is what many doctors currently prescribe for an early miscarriage, depending on the situation – will still be faster for some patients than using no drugs at all, Colson said, but by itself, the number of prescribed doses would increase, which creates more cramping and other side effects. The ruling bothers him because the medicine now pulled from shelves has fewer side effects than misoprostol and creates a better outcome for patient comfort.

“(Mifepristone is) an incredibly safe medication, and there’s no real reason to get rid of it except to inhibit access to a standard of care,” Colson said. “And for folks that are advocates of banning abortion, that means not getting the standard of care for an abortion, but the unintended consequence is for miscarriage management as well.”

Adapting to new challenges

Abortion-rights advocates and providers have been preparing for this legal outcome since plaintiffs sued the FDA last November. Georgia Republican Attorney General Chris Carr filed to join the suit.

Some advocates have been forming an underground network of abortion pills and helping people access the medication outside of the U.S. legal system.

Some abortion clinics have already promised to keep offering medication abortion, regardless of Kacsmaryk’s ruling.

Some doctors, like Colson, plan to recommend misoprostol alone for patients who want or can only access abortion via medication – something OB-GYNs sometimes did before the FDA approved mifepristone in 2000.

Dr. Deborah Nucatola, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood Great Northwest Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky, has practiced abortion care in nine states for more than 25 years, which includes a stretch of about five years before mifepristone. When the drug was introduced, effectiveness and speed to complete an abortion rapidly increased, she told States Newsroom.

“Losing access means patients still have access to options, but it takes longer, and the risk of failure is higher,” she said.

Nucatola expects more patients will have incomplete abortions and will need to return for the surgical procedure, called aspiration, which involves using suction to empty whatever tissue remains in the uterus.

Time is the most important factor when it comes to optimizing women’s recovery from spontaneous or induced abortion, Nucatola said. Medication abortion works quickly, and has a low infection rate. She expects infection rates will remain low with misoprostol-only, but the longer it takes for a pregnancy to fully end, the higher the chances of infection and other complications.

Misoprostol is still a safe and effective medication, she said, but the higher doses cause more side effects, such as chills, nausea, vomiting, gastrointestinal distress and fever. The recommendation is 12 misoprostol pills, as opposed to four for medication abortions before eight weeks.

“(Patients are) just going to have a lot more discomfort for longer,” Nucatola said, underscoring that providers will continue to support patients amid the coming challenges. “We trust our patients to do the best thing for themselves, and we’re going to do everything we can to support them, whether or not we have access to mifepristone.”

But for anti-abortion lobbying groups, today is a huge victory, years in the making.

Students for Life of America (SFLA) – a national group that fights against abortion and birth control access on college campuses – has for years campaigned against mifepristone and against the FDA’s loosening of restrictions, which most recently included allowing retail pharmacies to dispense the medication abortion regimen directly to patients.

SFLA president Kristan Hawkins said on a recent webcast. “When I launched Students for Life more than 16 years ago, we knew we were going to need a trained army, ground troops ready to go in states and communities around the country the moment Roe versus Wade was reversed. And we began looking at this issue of chemical abortion five years ago.”

Like the plaintiff anti-abortion medical groups in this lawsuit, Students for Life uses the number 28 to argue that mifepristone should be banned. It’s the same number the FDA uses to argue that it’s safe: 28 deaths out of an estimated 5.6 million people in 23 years have been associated with the FDA’s abortion regimen, which is a markedly lower rate than many common FDA-approved drugs, like Tylenol and Viagra. And as the FDA notes, that small number includes fatal cases “regardless of causal attribution to mifepristone,” including people who died from homicide, suicide, and pulmonary emphysema.

But Hawkins did acknowledge that the procedure her movement is trying to ban terminates pregnancies early, in the first trimester – which is something most Americans favor, in public opinion polls.

“We became very concerned that there were legislative advances to make chemical abortion pills the preeminent type of abortion that’s offered in our country,” Hawkins said. “Because the abortion industry reads the same polls that we read. They know that the majority of Americans oppose second- and third-trimester abortions.”

A recent Public Religion Research Institute poll contradicts Hawkins, finding that 52% of Americans oppose restrictions that make it illegal to obtain an abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Asked via email if SFLA expects an increase in second- and third-trimester abortions if this ruling makes first-trimester abortions harder to access and what the impacts of banning abortion drugs will be, Hamrick said, “Lives will be saved.”

Many doctors across the country disagree with her.

“Making mifepristone unavailable nationwide — even in states where abortion remains legal — will impose a severe, almost unimaginable cost on pregnant people throughout the United States,” write the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the other medical and public health societies in its brief.

“Medication abortion’s relative availability makes it more accessible to patients who otherwise face challenges to access medical care, including low-income patients and patients of color—the very people who are most likely to experience severe maternal morbidity and more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications.”

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.

“We have made every effort to avoid eliminating these services,” said Ford Elsaesser, the hospital’s board president, in a news release. “We hoped to be the exception, but our challenges are impossible to overcome now.”

The hospital said it will continue to provide women’s health services at Sandpoint Women’s Health and collaborate with Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene, which is about an hour from Sandpoint, to provide obstetrical care.

Sandpoint Women’s Health will not accept new obstetrics patients effective immediately and offered a referral list for patients to use for their care. The hospital said it would make every attempt to continue deliveries through May 19, but said it will depend on staffing.

The hospital’s board of directors and senior leadership called the decision an emotional and difficult one in the press release, and cited a loss of pediatricians, changing demographics and Idaho’s legal and political climate around health care as the reasons for the decision.

According to the press release, Bonner General Health delivered 265 babies in 2022 and admitted fewer than 10 pediatric patients, which is a decrease from prior years that reflects a nationwide decrease in births and an older population moving to Bonner County.

“Without pediatrician coverage to manage neonatal resuscitations and perinatal care, it is unsafe and unethical to offer routine labor and delivery services,” the press release said, citing months of negotiations that sought to avoid the outcome. “BGH has reached out to other active and retired providers in the community requesting assistance with pediatric call coverage with no long-term sustainable solutions.”

Longtime Idaho OBGYN says she is leaving the state amid hospital announcement

The release also said highly respected, talented physicians are leaving the state, and recruiting replacements will be “extraordinarily difficult.”

Idaho has one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country, with affirmative defenses in court only for documented instances of rape, incest or to save the pregnant person’s life. Physicians are subject to felony charges and the revocation of their medical license for violating the statute, which the Idaho Supreme Court determined is constitutional in January.

“The Idaho Legislature continues to introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care,” the hospital’s news release said. “Consequences for Idaho physicians providing the standard of care may include civil litigation and criminal prosecution, leading to jail time or fines.”

Dr. Amelia Huntsberger, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Bonner General Health, said in an email to States Newsroom that she will soon leave the hospital and the state because of the abortion laws as well as the Idaho Legislature’s decision not to continue the state’s maternal mortality review committee.

“What a sad, sad state of affairs for our community,” Huntsberger wrote.

Linda Larson, who has lived in Sandpoint for 36 years and delivered her first child at Bonner General Health, said the community relies on Bonner General Health for much of its health care services, including physical therapy and routine blood work.

“It’s just breaking my heart to see what’s happening,” Larson said. “It’s a wonderful hospital; they have excellent care. I just can’t say enough good things about it.”

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com. Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and Twitter.

The number of votes counted in Jerome County were incorrectly reported on the Idaho Secretary of State’s office website, which made it appear that a Democratic candidate won, the Jerome County Elections Office said in a press release Thursday.

While the Jerome County release did not specify which candidates were affected, Deputy Secretary of State Chad Houck said the miscount affected Legislative District 26, Seat B, which initially showed Democrat Karma Metzler Fitzgerald as the winner by 383 votes. Under the new legislative map created after redistricting, District 26 includes Blaine, Lincoln and Jerome counties.

After the tabulation was corrected, Metzler Fitzgerald lost to Republican Jack Nelsen by a small margin of 83 votes, according to the new totals. It also tightened the margin of victory for Democrat Ned Burns to just 38 votes, and Democrat Ron Taylor’s victory over Republican Rep. Laurie Lickley, R-Jerome, to 512 votes rather than about 1,000, but did not change the outcome.

Houck said Jerome County consulted with the Idaho Secretary of State’s office to determine the cause of the discrepancies and found there was a missing “vote type” configuration between the tabulated results and the way the results were published on the secretary of state’s website on election night.

The elections office marks ballots according to absentee, early vote and Election Day differentiators to track statistical information, Houck said, and when the results were reported to the state, the ballot type for early votes was not factored into the overall total. He likened it to an Excel spreadsheet formula that failed to capture one column’s data.

“Even though the data in the table was an accurate reflection of what their machine results were and what they had reconciled that night, what was visibly seen by the public did not reflect those numbers,” Houck said.

The incident underscores the fact that all results published on election nights are unofficial until the canvassing process is complete and results are certified, Houck said, but it also reflects the checks and balances that help ultimately ensure the outcome is correct. The deadline for the Idaho State Board of Canvassers to meet and certify election results is Nov. 23.

“It is important to understand that the original totals printed by the tabulation equipment were accurate, remain unchanged, and allowed for the correct reconciliation with poll book records and voter counts as calculated on the evening of Nov. 8,” the release said.

Houck reiterated that the hard copy results were correct, and would stand up to a recount if the candidate requests one.

Metzler Fitzgerald posted on Facebook on Wednesday that she had already applied for keys to the Idaho Capitol, a parking permit and committee requests, and had planned on attending legislative meetings in Lewiston on Monday.

Prior to the reversal, the balance of power in the Idaho Legislature remained unchanged from the prior year. Now Republicans have gained one seat, with 59 Republicans in the Legislature and 28 in the Senate. Democrats now have a total of 18 seats between the two chambers.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com. Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and Twitter.

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The Idaho Secretary of State’s office has imposed a fine of $250 and instructed Ammon Bundy’s gubernatorial campaign staff to add the words “Paid for by Ammon Bundy for Governor” to the website associated with signs posted across the state that say, “Don’t Vote.”

The QR code on the signs brings up dontvoteidaho.com, followed by a series of statements about how a person should not vote if they are not informed, and if they do, they are the most dangerous person to a democracy. The site then prompts the person to “Get informed” by going to Bundy’s campaign website.

The Idaho Capital Sun obtained a copy of a letter sent by Deputy Attorney General Robert A. Berry to Bundy’s campaign address on Tuesday. The letter gave notice of the fine for violations of Idaho Code. Berry pointed to a section of Idaho Code around campaign finance that directs candidates to clearly indicate who is responsible for communications that advocate the election, approval or defeat of a candidate or ballot measure.

A representative from Bundy’s campaign could not be reached for comment Friday.

Deputy Secretary of State Chad Houck told the Sun on Wednesday that his office was initially unsure if the signs were made in coordination with Bundy’s campaign. As the Sun reported, the domain for the website was attached to an address listed in New Plymouth that matched donation records for Jerry Jones. Jones has donated $3,560 to Bundy since August 2021, according to amended reports on Friday. Previous donation records as of Tuesday showed Jones had donated $6,050.

“In a subsequent interview by phone with (Jones), he claimed no responsibility or involvement with the site or campaign, other than that of a donor/supporter,” Berry said in the letter. “The domain registration was connected to a family member’s business. He also stated that the copies of the signs in question that he had in his possession at the time … had a small sticker disclosing ‘Paid for by Ammon Bundy for Governor’ in the bottom left corner.”

The letter said the stickers are roughly one-by-three inches in size and added to the sign after it was printed.

“The attributions on the ‘Don’t Vote’ signs were roughly one-fifth of the overall size of the same attribution on the immediately adjacent ‘Ammon Bundy for Governor’ signs produced by the campaign, an attribution which is consistent with what would be considered normal and ‘clearly’ visible as per statute,” Berry said in the letter.

While the small disclaimer was on the signs, the letter said the website does not include any attribution to the campaign, and therefore the maximum $250 would be fined. Additionally, the letter requests an acknowledgement from the campaign that all future campaign communications will clearly attribute who paid for them in a manner more consistent with their main campaign signs.

As of Friday morning, the website did not include any statement about who paid for it.

Berry also indicates in the letter that, if the campaign does not pay the fine, the Idaho Attorney General’s office may pursue further legal action to enforce its payment.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com. Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and Twitter.

The Idaho Secretary of State’s office is working to determine the source of signs posted around the Treasure Valley with a message that says, “Don’t Vote” and a QR code that redirects to the campaign website for Ammon Bundy, who is running as an independent candidate for governor.

The QR code brings up dontvoteidaho.com, followed by a series of statements about how a person should not vote if they are not informed, and if they do, that person is the most dangerous person to a democracy. The site then includes a button with the description “Get informed” and clicking it takes the user to Bundy’s campaign website.

Deputy Secretary of State Chad Houck said his office reached out to Bundy’s campaign about the signs on Monday but has not yet received a response. Bundy’s campaign could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

The signs do not indicate who paid for them to be printed and placed, which Houck said would be a campaign finance violation if the campaign knew about them. Idaho law requires campaigns to indicate on all political advertising who is responsible for the advertising.

“That’s a violation, clearly,” Houck said. “The question would be, are they actually a campaign piece?”

The signs started to appear throughout Boise and Meridian in the past week, including along the major thoroughfare of Eagle Road, and KTVB reported there are also signs in Emmett.

“That means they are theoretically at least an October expense, which means any October expenditures or contributions would be reportable by Nov. 10,” Houck said. “It all gets down to whether it’s coordinated, and if that’s the case, when did these go out?”

If an individual made the signs on their own without the campaign’s knowledge, Houck said, it would still need to be reported as an independent expenditure. The deadline for those expenditures to be reported, if they do not exceed $1,000, is Tuesday, Nov. 1. Expenditures in excess of $1,000 must be reported within 48 hours, according to Idaho law.

“If someone reports it as an independent expenditure by end of day tomorrow, that’s an answer,” Houck said.

The domain for the website does not include the name of the domain owner, but the address listed is in New Plymouth, and matches donation records for Jerry Jones, who has donated $6,060 to Bundy since August 2021. A call to the phone number associated with the domain goes to a recorded message saying the call cannot be completed.

Bundy reported two separate donations from Jones on Monday in the amount of $1,000 and $2,500, but Houck said if Jones paid for the signs, the donations would need to be reported as in-kind contributions rather than cash or check. And if the monetary donations were in addition to in-kind contributions, Houck said, then the office will need to determine if Jones exceeded the $5,000 contribution limit for the general election.

“We’re paying attention to it, we’ve definitely been made aware of it and we’re trying to figure out where it falls,” Houck said. “It would definitely seem that with the different connections there and the fact that it does point directly at the Bundy website that it’s either an independent expenditure or in-kind, so we will definitely be following up on it.”

A bill that would ban drag performances in all public venues will be introduced in the first days of the next session of the Idaho Legislature in January, Idaho Family Policy Center President Blaine Conzatti told the Idaho Capital Sun.

Conzatti and other conservative activists around Idaho and across the country have protested against events in public spaces that feature drag queens, including drag queen story hour events at public libraries. In September, Idaho Republican Party Chairwoman Dorothy Moon called for people to pressure corporate sponsors of Boise Pride to pull their names from sponsorship at the event over a scheduled “Drag Kids” performance for ages 11 to 18, which was ultimately postponed over safety concerns.

Conzatti said the draft bill is ready to be introduced as soon as the session gets underway but declined to share the text of the bill with the Sun and wouldn’t name the legislators who worked on it with him.

“No child should ever be exposed to sexual exhibitions like drag shows in public places, whether that’s at a public library or a public park,” he said.

Conzatti also cites a drag performance in Coeur d’Alene in June as another example of public indecency, when a performer was accused of exposing himself during a Pride in the Park event. After complaints, the local prosecutor’s office determined the video was edited to look like the performer had exposed himself when he had not. The performer has since filed a defamation lawsuit against North Idaho blogger Summer Bushnell over the incident, according to reporting from the Coeur d’Alene Press.

Group cites section of Idaho Constitution as basis for law

The Idaho Family Policy Center circulated a petition leading up to Boise Pride asking state lawmakers to prohibit drag performances from public places, citing a section of the Idaho Constitution that states the first concern of all good government is the virtue and sobriety of the people and the purity of the home. It says the Legislature should “further all wise and well-directed efforts for the promotion of temperance and morality.”

“There were many Supreme Court decisions from the 19th century dealing with public virtue and how sexual practices should not take place in public because it degraded public virtue,” Conzatti said.

In Conzatti’s opinion, drag is inherently a sexualized caricature of gender, which he compared to racist blackface practices that were a common practice in theater up until the last 50 years. He recognized that might be an offensive comparison to some.

“You overemphasize certain natural characteristics so much that it becomes a caricature of itself,” he said.

More than 3,500 people signed the petition, according to a newsletter from the Idaho Family Policy Center, and more than 26,000 emails were sent to corporate sponsors of Boise Pride over the course of a day and a half.

Longtime drag performer says sexualized characterizations are insulting

Boise resident Crispin Gravatt has performed drag for more than a decade under the stage name Penelope Windsor in all types of venues, including drag story time at libraries and at Boise Pride in September.

“At its core, drag is art, and art can be powerful,” Gravatt said. “For a lot of us it’s a way to be part of a community and do something fun and creative. For me and for my friends, it’s kind of like art therapy, the same kind of thing we see with veterans or abuse survivors. It’s a way we can find joy and work through some of the challenges in a world that can be challenging at times for people like me.”

To Gravatt, drag is no different from original Shakespearean theater performances when men played women on stage and women played men, or the way a clown entertains a crowd. The misinformation about drag that is spreading is harmful, they said, because many people don’t know what drag actually is and end up believing something that isn’t true.

“It’s a little insulting that these folks think people like me don’t know how to act appropriately for where we’re at,” they said. “In my experience being in this community performing, producing, going to shows, and just celebrating who I am and who my community is, it’s weird to see that such a small group of people has made it so far in what they are trying to do, because 99% of people I meet all over the state – they think it’s a either a fun creative outlet or something that may not be for them, but isn’t a threat.”

Boise Pride director hopes to see pushback if bill is introduced

Boise Pride Executive Director Donald Williamson also received thousands of protesting emails in the days leading up to the event. He said he is aware of the draft bill and thinks it would be a violation of free speech to ban a certain type of performance, despite Conzatti’s assertions that it will be legally defensible if it passes the Legislature and is subsequently challenged in court.

“It’s just wrong on so many levels,” Williamson said. “If you don’t agree with the performances, then you don’t go. It’s just like any other venue. It’s why I don’t go to country music concerts; it’s not my cup of tea.”

Williamson spent several years as a bartender at a drag club in Oregon, and said drag was not built on a sexualized foundation.

“It was meant as a means of expressing your identity that maybe you didn’t have the ability to do in your public life, as a form of expression and empowerment,” he said. “Obviously like any other form of entertainment, there’s going to be some sexualizing in one way or another. … There’s a difference between a drag show that you and I might see if we decided to go see a drag show on a Friday or Saturday night with a cover charge, versus a drag show on a Sunday afternoon at a park in front of the public.”

Williamson said Boise Pride is planning an alternative kids’ drag show at a private venue for a later date so that the performers’ family and friends can attend and the work the performers put in doesn’t go to waste.

If the bill is introduced as planned, Williamson said he expects a lot of pushback, and he hopes those who showed up for Boise Pride will show up to the statehouse or contact their representatives.

“Show up and show out huge, not only when we see this legislation, but any legislation that’s targeting anybody that’s hateful or hurtful and is going to affect vast swaths of the population in a negative way.”

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com. Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and Twitter.

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Idaho faces another challenge to its abortion bans in federal court, but this time from the Satanic Temple, which argues the state’s abortion laws are unconstitutional violations of property rights, the equal protection clause, religious freedom and involuntary servitude.

The religious association filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Friday, along with a similar challenge in Indiana, which also has an abortion ban. In Idaho, District Judge Raymond Edward Patricco Jr. is assigned to the case.

The lawsuit argues against Idaho’s trigger law banning nearly all abortions and the civil enforcement law that allows family members to file lawsuits against medical providers who perform abortions. Both allow exceptions for rape and incest and to save the pregnant person’s life. The Satanic Temple asked the court to block the laws with an injunction.

The Idaho Attorney General’s Office declined to comment based on its policy of not commenting on pending litigation. Gov. Brad Little’s office could not be reached for comment.

Complaint argues Idaho laws are violations of constitutional freedoms

According to the complaint, there are more than 1.5 million Satanic Temple members worldwide, and more than 3,500 are located in Idaho. The Temple says it “venerates, but does not worship, the allegorical Satan described in the epic poem ‘Paradise Lost’ — the defender of personal sovereignty against the dictates of religious authority.”

Members must adhere to the Temple’s seven tenets, which include the idea that a person’s body is subject to their own will alone and that a person’s beliefs should conform to their best scientific understanding of the world. The fourth tenet also states that the freedom of others should be respected.

Attorneys for the religious group argue that the uterus of an “involuntarily pregnant woman” is a physical thing to which property rights apply, because eggs can be retained or removed, the uterus itself can be removed for any purpose, and it can be rented to a third party as a gestational carrier under a surrogacy agreement.

Those property rights cannot be violated by the state without just compensation, the lawsuit says, according to the Fifth and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

The Temple also says a pregnant person must provide a fetus with hormones, oxygen, nutrients, antibodies, body heat and protection from external shocks and intrusions, which are all services that an involuntarily pregnant person would be forced to provide under the state’s abortion bans.

“The Idaho abortion bans provide no compensation or consideration to an involuntarily pregnant woman for providing the services necessary to sustain the life of a protected unborn child that occupies and uses her uterus,” the complaint reads. “The … (pregnant people) are put into a condition of involuntary servitude in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment.”

Attorneys also argue the bans require discrimination between people who become pregnant by accident and those who were raped, which the complaint said violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Under the argument of religious freedom violations, the Temple said the state’s abortion bans prohibit members of the Temple from engaging in the Satanic Abortion Ritual. The ritual is grounded in the Temple’s tenets that a person’s body is theirs alone and not subject to violation by others. The ban therefore violates the state’s Exercise of Religious Freedom Act, according to the complaint.

“There are less restrictive means of furthering the state’s asserted interests served by the Idaho Abortion Bans than banning the Satanic Abortion Ritual,” the complaint said.

Temple lawsuit is one of several ongoing cases over Idaho abortion laws

This is the second lawsuit filed in federal court regarding Idaho’s abortion laws, the first of which came in early August when the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state because it said the abortion ban violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act — or EMTALA — which requires hospitals that receive payments for the federal Medicare program to provide medical care to stabilize all patients who come to the hospital with a medical emergency.

District Judge B. Lynn Winmill granted a request to block the ban from applying to emergency room situations one day before the trigger law went into effect, and another hearing has not yet been scheduled in the case. Attorneys for the Idaho Legislature and the Idaho Attorney General’s office have asked Winmill to reconsider the order, saying he misinterpreted the law.

In addition, the Idaho Supreme Court will hold a hearing Thursday for oral arguments in the case filed by Planned Parenthood against the state of Idaho’s abortion laws.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com. Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and Twitter.

Less than a month after he was sentenced to at least eight years in prison for the crime of rape, former Idaho legislator Aaron von Ehlinger has submitted an appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court, alleging Ada County’s Fourth District Court made several errors during his trial and sentencing.

A jury found von Ehlinger guilty of the felony crime of rape on April 29, and he has been incarcerated since that date. He was charged with the crime after a 19-year-old legislative intern, who is referred to as Jane Doe to protect her identity, said von Ehlinger, then 39, took her to dinner in early March 2021, then back to his apartment, where she said he forced her to perform oral sex and inserted his fingers inside of her without her consent.

Judge Michael Reardon added another possible 12 years to von Ehlinger’s sentence for a total of 20 years.

In the notice of appeal, von Ehlinger’s attorney, Jon Cox, said the court should not have allowed the state to present evidence from a sexual assault nurse, and the court should have immediately declared a mistrial when Doe took the stand and then abruptly left the courtroom, saying she couldn’t bring herself to testify. Reardon did ask Cox if he wanted to motion for a mistrial after Doe left the stand and he declined.

Cox also said the court should have granted von Ehlinger’s motion for a new trial and said Reardon abused the court’s discretion by imposing a 20-year sentence with eight years fixed.

According to Idaho law, anyone who is found guilty at trial can appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court. A defendant must file a notice of appeal within 42 days of a judgment or order, and transcripts of court proceedings are produced before the person filing the appeal submits a full briefing explaining the reason the decision should be reversed.

Von Ehlinger’s attorney also filed a motion to have the fees waived for the production of transcripts and have them paid at the public’s expense, since von Ehlinger has been incarcerated since April and has no way to pay for it.

Cox also motioned for the court to appoint an appellate public defender to von Ehlinger’s case, saying he owes a balance to Cox’s law firm that he is unable to pay and should have a public defender moving forward.

Nate Poppino, spokesperson for the Idaho Supreme Court, said a full appeal will be filed with the court at a later date, at which point it will be assigned to an appeals court.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com. Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and Twitter.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement Tuesday calling Idaho’s abortion laws “extreme and backwards” in response to a memo issued by the University of Idaho cautioning employees not to provide reproductive health counseling to students, including abortion, or risk losing their jobs or face criminal prosecution.

“To be clear, nothing under Idaho law justifies the university’s decision to deny students access to contraception. But the situation in Idaho speaks to the unacceptable consequences of extreme abortion bans,” Jean-Pierre said in the statement. “The overwhelming majority of Americans believe in the right to birth control, as well as the right to abortion, without government interference.”

The university’s general counsel sent the memo to all employees on Friday, advising that Idaho law prohibits university employees from promoting, counseling or referring someone for an abortion, and prohibits the institution from dispensing drugs classified as emergency contraception except in cases of rape. The memo was intended to help UI staff understand the complexity of a law passed in the 2021 session of the Idaho Legislature dubbed the No Public Funds for Abortion Act. The University of Idaho and other public schools across Idaho are subject to the law since they are state-funded institutions.

The University of Idaho’s Administration Building on the main Moscow campus. (Courtesy of the University of Idaho)

University of Idaho spokesperson Jodi Walker said the memo was intended to help employees understand the legal significance and possible ramifications of the law, which includes individual criminal prosecution.

“While abortion can be discussed as a policy issue in the classroom, we highly recommend employees in charge of the classroom remain neutral or risk violating this law,” Walker said in an email to the Sun. “We support our students and employees, as well as academic freedom, but understand the need to work within the laws set out by our state.”

White House official: U.S. Supreme Court decision created a runway for birth control bans

University officials were told in the guidance not to dispense birth control unless it comes from student health facilities that are contracted through Moscow Family Health, and not to provide condoms except to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

An official with President Joe Biden’s administration told the Idaho Capital Sun the university’s memo is indicative of a larger trend across the country of Republican officials expressing support for contraception bans, including banning Plan B.

At the time the bill passed the Idaho Legislature, one of the state’s leading anti-abortion organizations — the Idaho Family Policy Center — supported it as a way to ensure “abortion providers do not have unfettered access to students at public schools, colleges and universities,” according to a statement from 2021.

“Our hard-earned tax dollars should never be spent on promoting abortion,” said Idaho Family Policy Center President Blaine Conzatti in a statement at the time. “(The act) will help create a culture of life in Idaho by making sure taxpayers do not subsidize something as morally problematic as abortion.”

Conzatti told the Capital Sun in July that he supports banning Plan B and other types of emergency contraception as well as IUDs, because he said anything that can end life after conception is problematic.

The White House official said the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June paved the way for more restrictions.

“We’re seeing similar efforts pop up in various states across the country, and it’s part of a very disturbing trend that the Supreme Court created a runway for, and Republican officials are taking advantage of to go even further than some of the laws we’ve already seen,” the official said.

The official pointed people concerned about the issue to a website launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services summarizing reproductive rights across the country with links to resources and updated information.

“It’s important (for people) to identify medical professionals that have all the information about their reproductive rights and reproductive choices,” the official said.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com. Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and Twitter.

Former Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger will serve at least eight years in prison for the felony crime of rape, with another 12 years or the possibility of parole, for a total of 20 years in prison, Fourth District Judge Michael Reardon ruled Wednesday.

Von Ehlinger will also be required to register as a sex offender upon the time of his release, and a court order not to contact the victim in the case will remain in place until Aug. 30, 2055. He will also receive credit for 139 days he has already served in Ada County Jail, and is ordered to pay court costs and $2,015 in restitution.

The sentencing comes four months after a jury found von Ehlinger guilty. The jury found von Ehlinger not guilty of the second charge of oral penetration. According to statute, Reardon had discretion to impose between one year and life in prison for the crime of rape.

A 19-year-old legislative intern, who is referred to as Jane Doe to protect her identity, said von Ehlinger, then 39, took her to dinner in early March 2021, then back to his apartment, where she said he forced her to perform oral sex and inserted his fingers inside of her without her consent.

The prosecuting attorneys asked for a 40-year sentence for von Ehlinger with 15 years fixed and the remaining time either in prison or on parole. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Katelyn Farley said von Ehlinger had a low probability of rehabilitation. That determination is based on the pre-sentencing investigation that was conducted by a doctor to determine von Ehlinger’s risk of reoffending.

Von Ehlinger’s attorney, Jon Cox, asked for a lighter sentence with retained jurisdiction, meaning von Ehlinger would complete a rehabilitation program and Reardon could reassess his sentence afterward. Reardon did not grant the request to retain jurisdiction.

Cox motioned for a new trial earlier this month based on what Cox said were constitutional violations during the April trial as well as new evidence. Reardon denied that motion on Aug. 25, saying the evidence was not compelling and he did not think any constitutional violations occurred.

Ada County prosecutors played recording of victim impact statement from Jane Doe

Ada County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Emily Lowe said Doe did not want to make any statements after the sentencing, and she only briefly appeared during the trial before fleeing the stand.

But Doe did record a victim impact statement that prosecutors played during the sentencing. In the recording, she said she already had post-traumatic stress from events that happened during her childhood, and what she experienced that night has put her in a constant state of hypervigilance.

“How can I recount the terror my body was going through that evening?” Doe said. “Have you ever tasted blood from biting the inside of your lips because you couldn’t say ‘no’ loud enough? Have you ever felt buried alive in your own flesh, that your screams stay trapped on the tip of your tongue?”

Doe said she will never forget the strength and force of von Ehlinger’s grip as he squeezed her head and forced her to perform oral sex. She said she worried he would become violent if she resisted beyond saying, “I don’t want to.”

She also said she does not feel safe in her own home, and that she was petrified to speak even on a recording.

“But I will not be intimidated into complacent silence so that another rapist can slip through the cracks of this justice system,” she said.

Ada County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Katelyn Margueritte Farley addresses Fourth District Judge Micheal Reardon during the sentencing of former state Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger at the Ada County Courthouse on Wednesday. (Sarah Miller/Idaho Statesman)

Judge Reardon to von Ehlinger: I am persuaded you used your power to your advantage

Von Ehlinger gave his own statement before Reardon made his decision and discussed the misdemeanor violations on his record that were pardoned by the state of Idaho one month before the rape occurred. Von Ehlinger said he asked for the pardons because he was committed to living a law-abiding life, and that the rape conviction did not change that commitment.

Von Ehlinger also talked at length about his military service, and said he served honorably as a soldier in Afghanistan, where “the only thing between Afghani women and the Middle Ages was the American soldier.”

He asked for Reardon’s mercy and leniency but said whatever treatment the judge ordered, he would treat it with the same seriousness as he would in the military.

Reardon said throughout the prosecution of the case, including during the trial, statements von Ehlinger made during the pre-sentence investigation and his statements in court on Wednesday, he noted von Ehlinger’s “demonstrated lack of empathy for the victim” and propensity to blame the victim.

“As I listened to you today, I wrote down two words: ‘victim’ and ‘hero.’ That you see yourself as a victim, and you see yourself as a hero. And frankly, I don’t see you as either one of those things,” Reardon said. “You created your own circumstances that put you here today.”

Reardon said there were also vast differences between von Ehlinger and Doe, including differences in age, physical stature and cultural power, given von Ehlinger’s position as an elected official.

“I’m persuaded that you used those things and manipulated them to your advantage in the completion of this crime,” Reardon said.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com. Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and Twitter.

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