State lawmakers in Idaho passed a six-week abortion bill Monday, modeled after Texas’ S.B. 8 abortion law that was challenged at the United States Supreme Court. The bill is headed to Republican Gov. Brad Little’s desk.
According to a report from Fox News, the bill bans abortions in the state after six weeks gestation and allows “family members to sue any doctor who performs one [an abortion].” The bill passed 51-14 after having previously passed the state Senate.
“Like the law in Texas, the Idaho bill enforces the ban by allowing private individuals to bring suit in state court against people who allegedly perform such illegal abortions. The bill includes exceptions for rape, incest and medical emergencies.
The proposed Idaho law allows those who would have been the father, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles of an aborted unborn baby to sue an abortion provider for a minimum of $20,000 in damages within four years of the abortion.
Opponents claim the law is unconstitutional and that some women do not know they are pregnant within six weeks.”
Late last year, shortly after Texas’ S.B. 8 took effect, South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem said in an interview with Fox News that her office had been in contact with lawmakers in Texas who created the legislation and wanted to recreate it for South Dakota. She reiterated this objective in her State of the State address this year.
“We’ve already connected with those in Texas who brought forward this bill and are working and looking at how we could facilitate this legislation in South Dakota,” Noem told Rachel Campos-Duffy in the interview. “It was immediately something we were looking at doing here in our state.”
Other states, such as Mississippi, Florida, Arizona, and West Virginia have created legislation to implement 15-week abortion bans, which is mainstream in most European countries. Currently, Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban is being challenged at the Supreme Court.
