A bill to ban partial-birth abortions in Idaho has passed both the state Senate (29-6) and a committee in the state House (12-3). The anticipation is the full House will vote on SB 1049 tomorrow.
Pro-abortion Democrats insisted the law was unnecessary and that partial-birth abortions are already banned in Idaho. However “Bill sponsor Sen. Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian, said SB 1049 will make Idaho law consistent with a federal ban enacted in 2003,” according to Erin Bamer of the Idaho Press-Tribune. That is important for two reasons, as Ingrid Duran, director of State Legislation told NRL News Today.
First, it is true that Idaho passed an earlier version of a ban on partial-birth abortions. But it mirrored the Nebraska law which the Supreme Court struck down in 2000 in its Stenberg v. Carhart decision. A federal court subsequently invalidated Idaho’s law, Duran explained.
The 2003 law Hartog referenced is the federal ban on partial-birth abortions upheld in 2007 by the Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Carhart.
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Second, “While it’s illegal to perform a partial-birth abortion everywhere in the United States, having a state law on the books allows for state district attorneys to prosecute those who break the law instead of waiting for a federal prosecutor who may or may not go after those who willingly perform this gruesome abortion technique,” Duran said.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in his National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
