Abortion-Related Artworks Removed from Idaho College Exhibition

Lewis-Clark State College cited violations of the No Public Funds for Abortions Act passed last year.

Rhea Nayyar
Mar 7, 2023

An exhibition at the Lewis-Clark State College’s Center for Arts and History in Lewiston, Idaho, became a hotbed of controversy after six abortion-related artworks were removed mid-install. The school cited the No Public Funds for Abortions Act passed last year as the reason for removing works by Katrina Majkut, who curated the show; Lydia Nobles; and Michelle Hartney. The three artists are currently in communication with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), which have presented the school with a joint letter calling for the decision to be reconsidered.

The exhibition, titled Unconditional Care: Listening to People’s Health Needs, showcases work about people living with chronic illnesses, disabilities, pregnancy, assault, and gun violence. Three documentary films and one audio piece from Nobles’s As I Sit Waiting series that highlights lived experiences with abortion, Majkut’s embroidery piece depicting prescription abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol, and Hartney’s transcription of a 1920s letter from an unwell mother to Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger begging for accessible reproductive healthcare were removed leading up to the exhibition’s opening on March 3.

Continued: https://hyperallergic.com/806454/abortion-related-artworks-removed-from-idaho-college-exhibition/

07.03.2023

News

American Civil Liberties Union

anti-choice censorship

Center for Arts and History

Katrina Majkut

Lewis-Clark State College

Lydia Nobles

Michelle Hartney

National Coalition Against Censorship

Idaho

United States

Anti-choice

State Abortion Rulings Post-Dobbs Begin Defining Scope of Rights

Jan. 17, 2023
Mary Anne Pazanowski

State top courts have begun weighing in on whether their laws provide greater protection for abortion rights than the federal constitution, with mixed results.

A majority of South Carolina’s Supreme Court justices recently held that the state constitution’s guarantee against unreasonable invasions of privacy extends to abortion. But the Idaho Supreme Court reached the opposite conclusion, holding that there’s no fundamental right to abortion in the state constitution.

Continued:: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/state-abortion-rulings-post-dobbs-begin-defining-scope-of-rights

17.01.2023

American Civil Liberties Union

anti-choice restrictions

Brennan Center for Justice

Center for Reproductive Rights

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

As Oklahoma and Idaho enact abortion restrictions, Black women will suffer the most

BY AMIAH TAYLOR
April 13, 2022

On April 12, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that makes it a felony—punishable by up to 10 years in prison—to perform an abortion, excluding cases where there is a high risk of pregnancy-related death. The bill is just the latest example of the steady rise in restrictive measures across the U.S. that limit women’s access to abortions, especially for Black women, who are five times more likely to have an abortion than their white counterparts.

“States that enact restrictions on abortion access are not interested in supporting families, but rather in controlling the reproductive lives of women and birthing people—especially Black women and other people of color,” said Kamyon Conner, executive director of Texas Equal Access (TEA) Fund, a reproductive justice nonprofit.

Continued: https://fortune.com/2022/04/13/state-abortion-restrictions-black-women-reproductive-maternal-care/

Are women’s bodies private property? In Idaho, apparently they are

Governor Brad Little signed SB1309, banning all abortions after six weeks’ gestational age – and it is enforced not through state action, but private lawsuits

Moira Donegan, The Guardian
Fri 25 Mar 2022

If there was any doubt that Roe v Wade has been nullified, Idaho’s governor, Brad Little, put an end to it on Wednesday, when he signed SB1309, known officially as the Fetal Heartbeat Preborn Child Protection Act, into law. Like Texas’ SB8, Idaho’s new law bans all abortions after six weeks’ gestational age, in plain violation of Roe. But like SB8, the law may well be able to go into effect as scheduled next month, because it is enforced not through state action, but through private lawsuits.

The supreme court is likely to overturn Roe this summer anyway, in the widely anticipated Dobbs v Jackson ruling. But almost all abortions have been illegal in Texas since September, when the court gave its blessing to SB8’s private enforcement provision and allowed the law to go into effect. Since the court gave the nod to SB8, other Republican-controlled states have rushed to pass copycat bills, eager to outlaw abortion within their borders even before the downfall of Roe in a few months.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/25/idaho-abortion-ban-roe-v-wade

Idaho Governor Calls Abortion Law ‘Unwise’ but Signs It Anyway

The law, modeled after one in Texas, bans abortions after about six weeks and allows some people — including relatives of rapists — to sue abortion providers.

By Mike Baker
March 23, 2022

Gov. Brad Little of Idaho signed a strict new abortion bill into law on Wednesday, even as he expressed grave concerns about the wisdom and constitutionality of the measure and warned that it could retraumatize victims of sexual assault.

Modeled after a new law in Texas, the Idaho legislation bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy — before many women are aware they are pregnant — and allows family members of what it calls “a preborn child” to sue the abortion provider. Mr. Little, a Republican, said the law could conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, which established a constitutional right to abortion.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/us/idaho-abortion-brad-little.html

Idaho copies extreme Texas law and bans abortion after six weeks

Outrage as state becomes first in US to pass ban modelled on Texas law that allows family members to sue abortion providers

Gloria Oladipo
Tue 15 Mar 2022

Idaho has become the first US state to pass an abortion ban modeled after a controversial Texas law that prohibits abortions after about six weeks or when a heartbeat is detected.

The news comes with abortion rights under assault across the US – despite clear majority support for such rights. The conservative-dominated US supreme court is thought likely to overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling which established the right, later this year.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/15/idaho-abortion-ban-texas-law-six-weeks

15.03.2022

Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates

States Are Using the Cover of COVID-19 to Restrict Abortion and Healthcare for Women

States Are Using the Cover of COVID-19 to Restrict Abortion and Healthcare for Women
With constituents distracted by the deadly pandemic, Republican state legislatures across the country are ramping up efforts to limit access to abortion

By Alex Morris
March 30, 2020

On March 18th, as the reality of the coronavirus crisis was becoming painfully apparent to Americans, the Idaho legislature was turning its attention to healthcare concerns of another kind: making sure that women were denied access to abortion at some nebulous future date. Across the country, state legislatures had gone into recess, heeding the social distancing advice of medical professionals. Not Idaho. For at least an hour on the floor of the House, there was vigorous debate over Senate Bill 1385, a so-called “trigger law” that would immediately criminalize abortion in the state if Roe v. Wade were overturned or a constitutional amendment gave states the right to criminalize it themselves. Under the law, performing an abortion would be a felony, except in instances of officially-reported rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother. “Everyone needs to face the consequences of their own personal choices,” Representative Megan Blanksma said in her closing debate, just before the bill passed 49-18 and made its way to Governor Brad Little’s desk to be signed, which it was last Tuesday.

Continued: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/covid-19-abortion-planned-paranthood-975324/

What It’s Like to Get an Abortion in Idaho

What It's Like to Get an Abortion in Idaho
The closest clinic was more than 6 hours away, so this woman actually went to another state.

by Claire Lampen
Mar 22 2020

Idaho’s abortion policy hasn’t received much stage time in the national debate about reproductive health, but the conservative-led state has, unsurprisingly, some of the more restrictive laws on the books.

Some measures, like one passed in 2018 requiring the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to gather information on abortion-related health complications (exceedingly rare, particularly in the first trimester, when most abortions take place), seem to exist solely to stigmatize the procedure; others, like one proposed but not passed in 2019, seek to punish patients and providers by reclassifying termination as murder. Last year, two Republican representatives tried to repeal the segment of state law that guards people who get abortions and the doctors who perform them against criminal prosecution. They weren’t successful, but the motivating sentiment gives you an idea of the political landscape.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/akwq74/idaho-abortion-laws-what-its-like-to-get-an-abortion-in-idaho