Letters to the editor: my body, support Wasden, include Humphreys and preserve salmon

My body

“My body, my choice” regarding personal freedom to make decisions affecting one’s health during a pandemic echo in the ears of the Idaho Legislature, where years ago a law passed allowing parents to withhold life-saving medical treatment for their children based on religious freedom.

Yet the Idaho Legislature ignores both personal and religious freedom with bills prohibiting women’s freedom to make their own medical decisions and parents making medical choices for their children. Proposed bills have stiff penalties — up to life in prison — codifying government intrusion into difficult family decisions — decisions the Legislature previously rightly determined should be based on personal medical choice.

Ask legislators to oppose:

• Bill S1309, banning abortion at 6 weeks, when many women don’t yet know they’re pregnant. It would deputize family members, who would receive a reward, to enforce it.
• Bill H675, charging a physician who provides gender-affirming medical care, including hormone therapy, with a felony. Parents would also be prosecuted for seeking out-of-state treatment for their children.

If you stand by the right to refuse a vaccination during a pandemic, remind legislators that our right to make medical decisions cannot be cherry-picked with laws limiting that right. Freedom says, “The choice is ours.”

Marilyn Beckett, Moscow

Support Wasden

For the past 20 years, Lawrence Wasden has faithfully served the residents of Idaho in providing outstanding legal services throughout Idaho. During this period of service, the governor, lieutenant governor and Idaho Legislature have routinely ignored his office’s sound legal advice and have spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars in the defense or support of illegal positions and frivolous lawsuits. Not only does the state pay its own legal fees to outside law firms, it more often than not has to pay the legal fees of the opponent. The results in these unfounded cases validate the fact that Wasden provides straightforward legal advice and does not chase the easy, political route.

Lawrence Wasden has opponents in the upcoming GOP primary. These candidates all espouse unsound legal rhetoric and, if successful, will use the attorney general’s office to advocate extreme and losing legal positions. Do not allow this to happen. Keep Idaho in good hands and re-elect Lawrence Wasden for another term as Idaho’s attorney general.

Frank Walker, Boise

Include Humphreys

Dear Idaho Statesman, on Friday you published an article regarding the governor’s race. In it, you highlighted both Brad Little and Janice McGeachin as having filed on the Republican ticket and insinuated that this race is only between them. Ed Humphreys filed on Wednesday. Why weren’t you there? Mr. Humphreys has raised almost $300,000 in a grassroots effort to become the next governor. He has significant name recognition throughout the entire state. He was the very first to announce his candidacy last year. His viability is strong. He is a serious contender. You would do well not to ignore him.

Whitne Strain, Eagle

Preserve salmon

I am a senior at Boise High School, and I am worried about Idaho’s delicate ecosystem. As more people move here it is becoming increasingly imperative to educate citizens about salmon endangerment and fight for a solution.

Four dams sit in Washington, blocking the cyclical journey that millions of salmon once made. As they return from the ocean, they act as a pump of rich nutrients for the river and surrounding land. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee have committed to providing a solution for the Snake River salmon by June of this year. The proposed solution could save these anadromous fish and restore the Lower Snake River.

Not only would these actions encourage health for Idaho’s other keystone species, but it would also advance our economy with fishing, respect previous tribal treaties, and mitigate wasted fish recovery efforts.

Rep. Mike Simpson’s Columbia Basin Initiative is also on the table. International Day of Action for Rivers is March 14th, so I urge readers to call Sen. Mike Crapo’s office and ask him to work with his colleagues in Congress to protect Idaho’s wildlife and outdoor spaces.

Lizzy Duke-Moe, Boise