The door to the meeting room for the Senate’s State Affairs, Resources and Environment, and Education committees as seen on March 10, 2025, at the Idaho Capitol Building in Boise. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)
A bill that would outline a process for courts to dismiss unfounded abortion lawsuits brought against Idaho doctors is headed for amendments in the Idaho Senate.
Bill cosponsor Sen. Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, said the dismissal process in Senate Bill 1171 is modeled after a recently approved Idaho law that outlines how Idaho judges can quickly dismiss frivolous lawsuits — dubbed strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPP lawsuits.
The Senate State Affairs Committee on a unanimous vote Wednesday sent the abortion lawsuit dismissal bill for amendments on the Senate floor, where any state senator can propose amendments to the bill.
For two years since Idaho’s abortion bans have been in place, Idaho’s Republican supermajority-controlled Legislature has waited for lawsuits challenging the bans to resolve before making changes to the state’s abortion laws, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.
Idaho has several abortion ban laws that, if violated, could allow doctors to be prosecuted and lose their medical licenses and even allow them to be sued for at least $20,000 by family members of a person who obtained an abortion.
In a survey for Boise State University’s annual Idaho Public Policy Survey last year, 64% of Idahoans said the state should at least have exceptions for documented rape cases, incest, non-viable pregnancies and both the life and health of the mother.
Idaho’s ban contains an exception to save the pregnant patient’s life, but not to prevent detrimental health outcomes, including the loss of future fertility, which is a risk with severe infection or bleeding.
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Lakey’s abortion lawsuit dismissal bill would only tweak Idaho’s civil abortion ban — not the state’s criminal ban. He said mostly technical amendments are expected to the bill.
“This doesn’t change the state of the law. There are those who would like to do that, but that’s not what we’re about this morning,” Lakey told the committee.
Anti-abortion activist David Ripley, executive director of Idaho Chooses Life, called the bill a good first step.
“This legislation is a result of conversations that I’ve had with medical providers over the last two years as the Defense of Life Act has taken effect, trying to persuade them that what they’ve been told and what they’ve heard in the newspaper and so forth is not an accurate representation of the law,” Ripley testified.
David Lehman, a lobbyist representing Bingham Memorial Hospital in Blackfoot, read a statement by doctors who practice obstetrics and gynecology, or OB-GYN, at the rural eastern Idaho hospital.
In the statement, the doctors said they entered the OB-GYN field because of their passion for caring for women and their babies.
“None of us at Bingham or in the area choose to perform elective abortions, and haven’t throughout our careers. Despite this fact, the actions of the Legislature, with regard to our abortion laws in the last few years, have indeed created unsustainable environments for us to continue caring well for the women and babies of Idaho. It has made hiring new providers nearly impossible. It has increased the pressure, work, anxiety and stress of an already very demanding role. It has eroded the trust we have in the state and our Legislature to work for the good of all Idahoans,” Lehman told the committee.
The bill is “a step in the right direction,” but is not “a fix to these problems,” he added.
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