OPINION: Who wants to live under Idaho’s abortion ban?

Idaho women and the health care providers they rely upon are far from the only ones who are suffering the effects of the Idaho Legislature’s war on reproductive rights.

Everyone in the Gem State who works here and depends on a healthy, vibrant economy could lose as well.

The fact is that the kind of draconian anti-abortion laws found in Idaho — and in the South — are so unpopular that a lot of people would prefer to live elsewhere.

Idaho’s law makes it a felony — punishable by a prison sentence — for any doctor to perform an abortion unless it’s required to save the woman’s life. It’s also permitted in those rare cases of rape and incest where the victim is willing to fill out a police report.

Compounding the effects is the lack of a health exception, empowering doctors — not prosecutors — to practice medicine. It’s up to prosecutors and the courts to decide if a woman’s crisis pregnancy has deteriorated to the point where her life is in danger. Women who would prefer not to wait that long opt to get help in other states. Doctors who act too soon for a prosecutor’s taste could wind up explaining themselves to a jury.

And this is about a spectrum of care. What about a woman who is told carrying a crisis pregnancy to term may permanently damage an organ — or leave her incapable of having other children? If death is not imminent, where does she turn for help?

So far, since Idaho’s abortion ban took effect in 2022, the effects have been felt most keenly in the health care community.

It’s one thing to say that Idaho has lost 22% of its practicing obstetricians in that time. It’s another thing to look at the raw numbers. Between August 2022 and November, 40 to 60 Idaho obstetricians quit practicing, left the Gem State or retired.

And how many people were recruited to replace them?

Two.

So a state that began the period with one obstetrician serving 6,668 Idahoans ended with one obstetrician serving 8,510 people.

That’s the view from 35,000 feet up.

On the ground, you’re seeing a growing number of maternal health care deserts, including communities served by hospitals that are closing their birthing centers for lack of staff.

“Idaho’s maternal and infant health is worsening,” Dr. Kylie Cooper, a maternal-fetal medicine physician told the Idaho Capital Sun as she left the state. “The loss of health care providers due to the criminalization of medicine will only further these health disparities.”

And as that happens, the problem will spread to other parts of the economy.

Last year, 78% of women involved in small businesses told a poll conducted by Small Business Majority that they were concerned about restrictions on reproductive care. Likewise, 64% said reproductive freedom allowed them to pursue careers and businesses.

Restrict those freedoms and women may retreat from the economy. An Institute for Women’s Policy Research put the price at $173 billion a year in lost economic output — an increase of 18.5% in four years.

If it hasn’t happened already, Idaho can expect to find it more difficult to attract young workers.

A year earlier, 10% of young women told Lake Research Partners that restrictions on their reproductive health care options had led them to turn down a job offer.

And there are accounts of women refusing to attend conferences in states with laws like Idaho’s for fear they might need medical help during their brief visits to those states.

Two years ago, 65% of some 3,464 college-educated and full-time working adults said they would be discouraged from taking a job in a state if “politicians in the state recently tried to restrict access to reproductive health care.”

That’s shown no sign of abating.

Last week, a CNBC/Generation Lab survey of 1,033 people ages 18 to 34 found:

62% “probably” or “definitely” would not live in a state with an abortion ban.

If they received a job offer in a state where abortions were illegal, 45% would “definitely” or “probably” decline.

You could understand Idahoans accepting these economic losses if they considered it to be a worthwhile sacrifice. But abortion bans are no more popular in the Gem State than elsewhere.

For instance, polling released by United for Women and Families shows the same proportion — 63% — oppose subjecting health care providers to felonies and believe the decision to terminate a fetus should be left to women, their families and their doctors.

Ask someone who is familiar with Idaho’s business community, and he’s likely to tell you things will get worse until or unless:

The U.S. Supreme Court sides with the Biden administration and against Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador on whether the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act protects emergency room doctors from criminal prosecution if they provide therapeutic abortions in crisis pregnancies.

In 2025, the Idaho Legislature makes good on a pledge it failed to keep this year by passing a health exception to the abortion ban.

In 2026, Idahoans follow the lead of voters in other conservative states, including Kansas and Ohio, by restoring reproductive rights at the ballot box.

Until then, a lot of Idahoans — and potential Idahoans — are going to be voting with their feet. — M.T.