The rallying calls were familiar.
Despite dangerous pregnancy complications, women are being denied emergency abortions. Doctors are leaving the state. And politicians shouldn’t be involved in sensitive health decisions.
But one part of the pitch was new: Instead of asking state lawmakers for a fix, Idahoans can sign on to establish their own state law.
“Idaho has been living under the trigger ban for nearly three years,” Melanie Folwell, lead organizer for the group behind Idaho’s abortion rights ballot initiative, told a Boise rally on Saturday. “And we have seen — and you’ll see in the stories you hear today — that it simply does not work for Idaho. It doesn’t work for anybody. So, today is the first step we are taking to end the ban.”
The effort to collect signatures for the proposed ballot initiative comes nearly three years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. That reversal lifted federal court protections for abortions, letting states regulate abortion — which activated trigger abortion bans in several states, including Idaho.
Idaho banned abortion. Three years later, minors and seniors struggle to get routine care.
Despite calls for change in the three years Idaho’s ban has been in place, including by the state’s top medical association, Idaho lawmakers have largely refused to modify Idaho’s strict abortion laws.
The ballot initiative, a power outlined in Idaho’s constitution, allows voters to propose their own policies that carry the power of law — if approved by a majority vote.
But qualifying an initiative for the ballot is a tough hurdle in Idaho.
In the past decade, only three ballot initiatives have had enough signatures to qualify for the ballot: a successful Medicaid expansion initiative in 2018, a failed historical horse racing initiative in 2018, and an unsuccessful primary election reform initiative in 2024.
The group Folwell leads, Idahoans United for Women and Families, is hoping to qualify the abortion ballot initiative for the ballot in the November 2026 general election. That gives organizers about a year to collect the nearly 71,000 signatures needed.
They already collected 1,200 signatures on Saturday, when hundreds of people turned out for the rally, organizers say. And organizers are gearing up for signature collection efforts across the state soon, Folwell told the Sun, helped by their 1,000 volunteers.
Initiative could mean doctors won’t ‘be afraid to move to Idaho,’ doctor says
The initiative could mean doctors and other medical professionals “will not be afraid to move to Idaho and take care of us,” Dr. Becky Uranga, an Idaho doctor, said at the rally.
That could mean several things might get better, she explained between cheers from the audience — like your longtime doctor “will stay and keep caring for you and thousands of others,” that you may be able to avoid a six-month wait to see a doctor or other medical professional, and that Idaho doctors can “again provide the needed care without the risk of criminalization hanging over our heads.”
“And most of all, this could restore the sacred space between doctors and our patients. And I can honor all of your beliefs and privacy in the exam room — without any external pressures,” Uranga said.
Kate Campbell-Covell, a pregnant mother with two kids, told the rally about how she had to travel to Utah after she learned her son wouldn’t survive her pregnancy.
“With tears in their eyes, our extremely compassionate and loving medical team explained that due to the laws in Idaho, they were unable to render the care they deem necessary to save my life and protect my future fertility,” she said.
Then she was airlifted out of state, she said.
After federal court protections, St. Luke’s has said the health system hasn’t had to air transport any patients for pregnancy complications. Before those protections, St. Luke’s transported six patients out of state in the first four months of 2024. The federal court protections only allow emergency abortions for doctors at St. Luke’s.
Campbell-Covell later learned that she had a severe placenta infection. If left untreated, she would have died, she said.
She had her son’s ashes sent home.
Ballot initiative backers explain why they signed
Krista Doubleday signed the initiative Saturday. She says she thinks people need to understand more about how an unwanted pregnancy affects people.
Krista Doubleday, who signed the Idaho abortion rights ballot initiative, displays her pro-reproductive rights T-shirt. (Kyle Pfannenstiel/Idaho Capital Sun) For years, she worked in social work, and now works as a local therapist.
“The amount of children that I saw living in absolutely horrid conditions, and from individuals that were forced to bear them from other countries, is really what radicalized me and made me pro choice,” Doubleday said.
Ken Harris, a local musician, also signed. He said he wants abortion access in Idaho to return to how it used to be.
“That was what the case was in Idaho for 50 years. Male politicians — politicians have no business dictating to people about their private medical decisions and feelings,” Harris told the Sun. “A woman’s opinion about what she should do with her body — for her own health, for her family — should be her decision alone.”
Signature gathering starts — after delay from redrafting state’s official descriptions
To qualify for the ballot, the group needs at least 70,725 qualifying signatures from Idaho registered voters. That figure is 6% of Idaho’s nearly 1.2 million registered voters in the 2024 general election — spread across half of the state’s 35 legislative districts.
But signature gathering efforts were delayed by almost six months after initiative organizers legally challenged descriptions state officials developed about the initiative for voters to see, Folwell told the Sun. The descriptions are featured on signature gathering forms.
Last month, the Idaho Supreme Court ordered the Idaho Attorney General’s Office and the Idaho Division of Financial Management to redraft the descriptions.
The new short ballot title describes the initiative as a “measure creating right to abortion before fetus viability, and post-viability to protect health; right to privacy; healthcare provider liability protections.”
The initiative would raise state expenses by less than one thousandth of a percent of Idaho’s share of the Medicaid budget, or between $3,100 and $7,800 each year, the initiative’s redrafted fiscal impact statement says.
“This impact is derived from the costs of treating chemical abortion complications for women enrolled in Idaho’s Medicaid program,” the fiscal impact statement says. “Medicaid covers medically necessary services to treat complications from all abortions. It is anticipated that as legal abortions increase, the complications will also increase. This will likely result in an increase in Medicaid covered services and expenditures to treat complications from chemical abortions, which the State has reliable and readily available data to support.”
The new fiscal impact statement also no longer includes the entire Medicaid services budget of $850 million in fiscal year 2024.
Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.