BOISE, Idaho — Early Monday morning, a press release announced doctors and experts scheduled a session to speak to lawmakers about Idaho's strict abortion laws and the impacts it has created on the state's medical field. Hours later, the event was canceled.
House Minority Leader Rep. Ilana Rubel was looking forward to the event. She said it was a chance to connect lawmakers with Idaho's realities.
“I think by any objective standards, Idaho’s abortion law has been a disaster,” Rubel said. “We have hemorrhaged doctors out of the state. We've lost 55% of our high-risk maternity specialists. We've lost about a quarter of our OB-GYNs. We've had three labor and delivery services shut down entirely.”
Around Monday afternoon, news of the session spread to lawmakers in the statehouse, and later, the event was called off. The official reason in the press release stated that legislative leadership needed to focus on concluding the session.
“I think the order came from Republican leadership," Rubel said. "I wasn't in the room when they did it. They're trying to blame the Democrats for this. They're trying to say it's because we raised the flag and said, hey, we need to fix Idaho's abortion laws."
Republican Rep. Megan Blanksma has a different perspective from across the aisle.
“I think it was called off because the chairman and some of the members of the committee were really frustrated at the press conference on Friday,” Blanksma said.
The press conference in question was held back on Friday by the House and Senate Dems. The topic, Idaho’s abortion laws.
“[They] didn't give a completely accurate explanation of the situation," Blanksma said. "So the Democrats came out, and they had a press conference and basically called Republicans names. And I think that's when the chairman got frustrated, and reasonably so because a lot of the things that were asserted in the press conference simply weren't true."
Blanksma understands how delicate the conversations on the topic are, but she believes across the aisle the temperature is being cranked up unnecessarily.
“I think part of the reason that we're having such difficulty is the fear-mongering that's coming out of the left in scaring people, and we need to do our best to let folks know that no, Idaho believes in healthy families, and we're doing our best to support that,” Blanksma said.
Dr. Loren Colson was going to speak to lawmakers at the canceled event and said she just wants lawmakers to understand the impact legislation has had on healthcare officials.
“Here's what it's like. Here are the struggles that we're having right now and so that our legislators can know, on a firsthand basis, what it's like for us as physicians right now," Colson said.
Colson believes some lawmakers will remain in the dark, not knowing what they don’t know as a result of the cancelled event.
"I said in the beginning, we can't just stop doing abortions and continue providing OB care and reproductive care as we were, before, just without abortion. And to explain those situations and those complications that arise, maybe they didn't think of before this law was passed,” Colson said.
For lawmakers, time is running out for the 2024 session. Still, Democrats and Republicans know there is a major conversation that continues.
“I think they were really afraid of the information that was going to come out of this hearing. And I think they were afraid of having more of a spotlight shone on essentially the disaster they have created with this abortion law. And unfortunately, we feel the law needs to be fixed. But their response, unfortunately, has been, let's try to make sure people don't find out how bad the law is,” Rubel said.
Republican lawmakers said they have talked with Idaho’s medical community and continue to listen about problems in the state. Members of the GOP said they simply did not want what was supposed to be an apolitical event to quickly become something else.
“They were trying to have a conversation. Try to come together, get us all on the same page. And then they felt like essentially a bomb went off and then it gets difficult to have the discussion. So now you're going to have a committee hearing after a press conference that isn't about having the discussion, and that's what it was supposed to be all along,” Blanksma said.
Join 'The 208' conversation:
- Text us at (208) 321-5614
- E-mail us at the208@ktvb.com
- Join our The 208 Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/the208KTVB/
- Follow us on Twitter: @the208KTVB or tweet #the208 and #SoIdaho
- Follow us on Instagram: @the208KTVB
- Bookmark our landing page: /the-208
- Still reading this list? We're on YouTube, too:
HERE ARE MORE WAYS TO GET NEWS FROM KTVB:
Download the KTVB News Mobile App
Apple iOS: Click here to download
Google Play: Click here to download
Watch news reports for FREE on YouTube: KTVB YouTube channel
Stream Live for FREE on ROKU: Add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching 'KTVB'.
Stream Live for FREE on FIRE TV: Search ‘KTVB’ and click ‘Get’ to download.