Under their breaths, people standing up for a woman’s reproductive autonomy caricature Idaho lawmakers as “stale, pale and male.”
In other words, the group of people outlawing abortions in the Gem State tends to be older white men whose ideology and life experiences leave them out of touch from the consequences of their decisions (although men have no monopoly on being doctrinaire). As a result, you get policies that are harsh and vindictive, such as criminalizing abortions with no real exceptions for victims of rape, incest and — if the Idaho GOP convention’s recent preference is enacted — life of the mother.
Look no further than the self-righteous rhetoric of Scott Herndon, who’s about to claim a seat in the state Senate from northern Idaho. Last weekend, he successfully argued against a GOP convention measure that would have allowed abortion in cases when continuing a pregnancy put a woman in “lethal danger.”
“For the last 49 years, we have essentially lost the argument in the culture because we have focused on abortion as the termination of a pregnancy and not the termination of a living human being,” Herndon told a group of like-minded delegates.
What accounts for that?
Does Herndon think that abortion is commonplace? That women resort to it cavalierly? That they wait until late in their pregnancies before terminating them?
As Audrey Dutton of the Idaho Capital Sun reported last weekend, it’s anything but:
l The prevalence of abortion has been declining for four decades. In 1981, when Idaho’s population was 947,983, the state reported 2,706 abortions.
By 2020, when Idaho’s population had reached almost 1.9 million, the number of abortions had fallen to 1,574.
l Nearly 80% of the time, an Idaho woman is having her first — and only — abortion. Fifteen percent had a second abortion. A miniscule number had multiple abortions.
l Abortions are most common among women in their 20s, when they are just starting out in life, figuring out relationships and a career. The rate of abortions per 1,000 female residents is 11.3 for those ages 20 to 24. For women ages 25 to 29, the rate per 1,000 is 8.5.
For teenagers ages 15 to 19, the rate per 1,000 is 3.8.
For women between the ages of 30 and 34, the rate is 5.9 per 1,000 and for those between 35 and 39, it drops to 3.3 per 1,000.
l More than half — 51% — have no children. Typically, she’s unmarried.
l Most of the time, the abortion is performed no later than the ninth week of pregnancy and it’s induced by medication, without physical or mental health complications.
l The northern and north central portions of Idaho already function in a post-Roe v. Wade world, where abortion providers are virtually non-existent. In 2020, 255 women in the Panhandle underwent an abortion — and all but one relied on a Washington provider. In north central Idaho, 90 women had an abortion and all but two went to Washington.
Does any of that sound like the rhetoric about late-term abortions or elective abortion being resorted to as a form of birth control that you frequently hear out of the state Capitol?
No.
If nothing else, it tells you that abortion has been tapering off — presumably because of more widespread contraception, especially emergency contraception such as the morning-after pill.
It also should tell you that abortion is an expensive, life-altering event, involving the intervention of health care providers in the most intimate of matters.
When it occurs, it comes after careful deliberation, certainly not casually. Women have explored their options, decided what’s best for them and then taken steps to avoid facing such a choice again.
So what would Idaho’s abortion laws look like if they were based on how Idaho women live?
You’d expand medication abortions, not restrict them.
You’d provide more information about sex ed and access to contraception, especially the morning after pill.
And you’d recognize that outlawing abortion in the Gem State will not make it disappear. — M.T.
