AG Labrador’s flawed legal opinion will chase even more doctors out of Idaho | Opinion
On March 27, Attorney General Raul Labrador wrote an opinion stating, in no uncertain terms, that a doctor risks losing their license and at least two years in prison if they even mention that abortion is legally available in other states. This conclusion flies in the face of freedom of speech, clearly serving partisan political objectives in Idaho.
This wrong-headed opinion makes Idaho’s medical environment even more dystopian for you and your healthcare providers. It is your doctor’s job to present you with all your options and to give you relevant and private medical information. That information, that trust, should not be controlled by ill-informed politicians; it should be freely communicated by educated medical professionals who know you and your health. This opinion from Labrador, clearly stating that the government can and will limit the information doctors may give to you, will chill medical speech, adversely affecting health outcomes. In fact, it already has.
In the last 30 days, two labor and delivery wards have closed in Idaho. Valor Health in Emmett, just north of Boise, just announced that they are closing its maternal health ward, citing staffing issues. In Sandpoint, Bonner General Health announced that it would no longer provide obstetrical services to the city of 9,000, forcing their patients to drive an hour to the closest facility. Lack of staffing is a massive problem, and it is likely to get worse. A recent poll by the Idaho Coalition for Safe Reproductive Health Care found that 62% of respondents are considering leaving the state as a direct result of Idaho’s abortion laws. A prominent north Idaho OB-GYN announced she was leaving the state not only due to the closing at Bonner General Health, but also due to the Idaho Legislature’s decision to discontinue the state’s maternal mortality review committee.
Prior to 2019, Idaho was one of the only states without a Maternal Mortality Review Committee. For the last three years, doctors, social workers and coroners analyzed each case where a person died during pregnancy or within a year after. All 26 deaths were determined to be preventable.
It is disturbing that the chief legal officer for the state believes that not only can Idaho ban abortion, but it can also ban Idahoans’ access to the truth. This is about more than just governing reproductive healthcare — this is part of a larger strategy by Idaho legislators to control your access to basic information. The Legislature has considered bills to ban books, cut school funding due to classes that mention racism and allow parents to sue libraries that lend out books referencing homosexuality. The decision to sunset the Maternal Mortality Review Committee simply takes it one step further, one meant to obfuscate what will be disastrous outcomes for pregnant Idahoans.
Trust that the people who suffer the most from these closures will be the people who already have the least access to healthcare. Rural Idahoans, immigrants, BIPOC communities and low-income residents will bear the brunt of this politically-motivated censorship. With fewer facilities and fewer physicians, there is no doubt we will see an increase in these preventable deaths. The question is who will count them?
This letter is a preview of what is to come for Idaho. Our state already has the strictest abortion ban in the country. By reading our Attorney General’s quiet, below-the-radar partisan opinions, we know that the abortion ban is just the beginning. Your right to information, to facts, to the truth, is under attack.
Our state legislators say they value individual freedom, but we cannot be free in a state with a gag order on our doctors. Attorney General Labrador’s opinion means disaster for Idaho’s future.
This story was originally published April 4, 2023 at 4:00 AM.