Last week, Idaho’s Republican Governor Brad Little signed a law making it unlawful to assist a minor in obtaining an abortion by providing them with medications or transporting them across state lines to get rid of a pregnancy without the consent of parents.
According to a report by the Associated Press, the new House Bill 232 initiates a new crime known as “abortion trafficking” and restricts adults from obtaining abortion medications for a minor or “recruiting, harboring, or transporting the pregnant minor” across state borders to obtain an abortion without parental or guardian consent.
Little, a GOP lawmaker, signed the bill into a law last week on Wednesday. Abortion is outlawed in the state.
Those individuals, who get convicted for violating the new law, will face a possible prison sentence of 2 to 5 years and are subject to being prosecuted by the child’s parents or guardians.
The law also authorizes the Attorney General of Idaho to introduce charges against individuals breaking the law, even if the county prosecutor declines to go after criminal charges.
In order to secure compliance with the constitutional right to move between the states, Idaho’s law targets only the portion of a journey that takes place within the state for abortion purposes from the help of an out-of-state provider.
Little stated in his signing statement:
“House Bill 242 does not criminalize, preclude, or otherwise impair interstate travel, nor does it limit an adult woman from obtaining an abortion in another state.”
He added:
“Rather the ‘abortion trafficking’ provision in the bill seeks only to prevent unemancipated minor girls from being taken across state lines for an abortion without the knowledge and consent of her parent or guardian.”
The Idaho state director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates-West criticized the legislation.
The organization tweeted:
“Yet again, Idaho’s governor disregarded constituents and signed HB 242 into law, creating the nation’s first crime of so-called ‘abortion trafficking.’ This legislation is despicable, and we’re going to do everything in our power to stop it.”
