OPINION: Would you trust this Legislature with your future?

The University of Idaho is panicked over a 2021 Idaho law it says puts employees at risk of dire circumstances if they veer even remotely into discussing abortion on campus.

You could call the UI’s reaction alarmist. That is, unless you consider the context — a radical Legislature responsible for passing this law in the first place.

On that score, the UI’s visual acuity is 20-20.

Last week, the UI’s general counsel set off another round in the nation’s culture wars by warning employees about a heretofore obscure “No Public Funds for Abortion Act” passed on a largely party-line vote. Of north central Idaho’s six-member delegation, only Sen. David Nelson, D-Moscow, voted no.

It didn’t garner much attention because the anti-abortion rights drama in 2021 was focused on a bill imposing criminal penalties for abortions performed after six weeks of pregnancy.

All of which had been part of the GOP-led Legislature’s annual Kabuki theatre on reproductive rights. To establish their bona fides with the base of the Republican primary, more moderate Republicans would go along — with the assurance that as long as Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, their actions had no consequences. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has reversed 50 years of precedent, these lawmakers are the dog that caught the car. Not only is their handiwork of the past three years — including a measure that could subject physicians to prosecution for terminating a pregnancy to save a woman’s life — now on the books, but so is a 1972 “zombie law” that threatens anyone other than a licensed physician with a felony if he “publishes any notice or advertisement of any medicine or means ... or offers his services ... for the prevention of conception.”

So along with clear-cut provisions that prohibit using state dollars for actually “providing or performing” an abortion or “contracting with abortion providers” or “advertising or promoting services for abortions,” Idaho has decreed that it is also a crime to use state funds to promote, counsel or refer for abortions.

What does that mean?

“The language of this statute is not a model of clarity,” the UI general counsel said.

What’s not unclear, however, are the penalties. Rather than use the power of the purse, the Legislature has activated the criminal code. Violate this law and you could face:

l A misdemeanor conviction with a year in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.

l Depending on the number of offenses, a felony conviction, which in some circumstances could lead to a one-year minimum prison term stretching up to 14 years and/or a $10,000 fine.

l Termination from employment, restitution and a ban from future state employment.

So for the moment, the watchwords at the UI are caution and neutrality.

“If a discussion moves into this area, students should be clearly informed that Idaho law prohibits the university and its employees from counseling in favor of abortion, referring for abortion or promoting abortion,” the general counsel wrote. “The earlier this occurs in a conversation that is moving into the subject, the less the risk to the employee.”

Not everyone sees it this way. For instance, not much is changing at Boise State University, which issued a more general series of questions and answers for faculty and staff. Ironically, however, BSU has discontinued dispensing emergency contraceptives through its student health operation in compliance with the law. Because UI contracts with Gritman Medical Center for student health services — and the new law exempts hospitals — emergency contraceptives will remain available.

There are constitutional and First Amendment issues involved and the ultimate answer rests with the courts.

But who wants to be the legal guinea pig?

Or face the scenario UI sociology major Jennica McClelland spelled out to the Lewiston Tribune’s Rachel Sun: “If you’re pissed at a professor or want to make things difficult for them, you could definitely get them tied up in a bunch of crap. Just by saying, ‘Oh, yes, I heard this discussion going on’ regardless of whether or not it turns into any criminal proceedings or loss of a job, you can make their life a whole lot more difficult for a while.”

One of the co-sponsors responsible for this mess, Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, assured The Associated Press’ Rebecca Boone that the kinks can be worked out.

But don’t be so sure.

After all, this is the same Legislature that took aim at critical race theory — which turns out to be code for whitewashing the history Idaho kids will learn in school.

This is the same Legislature that came uncomfortably close to jailing librarians for “making available” any “materials harmful to minors.”

This Legislature may just be getting started. — M.T.