You know, we've been hearing for months from hospitals, doctors, even patients.
I know's abortion ban and the associated laws have had
a strong negative impact on our health care system.
Obgyns and maternal medicine experts have been leaving the
state with none coming in to take their place
since the laws are too vague and restrictive and
many are just choosing to not deal with it.
We've been hearing about it and sharing it with you
and today, Ida lawmakers were supposed to hear it directly
how the laws they passed have left Idaho in
the lurch when it comes to maternal and fetal care
doctors were supposed to present their case illustrate the impact
to both the Senate and House health and welfare committees
supposed to.
But that meeting was canceled.
Why?
Here's Joe Paris
early Monday morning.
A press release lands in inboxes,
an event set for the statehouse doctors
and experts telling lawmakers about the impacts
of Idaho's abortion laws impacts on the
workforce impacts on staffing impacts across the board
hours later. Though an update, the event is canceled
by any objective standards. Idaho's abortion law has been a disaster.
House minority leader,
Democrat representative Alanna Rubel was looking forward to the event
a chance. She says to connect lawmakers with the reality of Idaho.
We have hemorrhage doctors out of the state.
We've lost 55% of our high risk maternity specialists.
We've lost about a quarter of our obgyns.
We've had three labor and delivery services shut down entirely.
Monday afternoon, word started around the statehouse.
The event with medical stakeholders is called
off official reason in the press release,
legislative leadership needed to focus on concluding the session.
I think the order came from Republican leadership.
Um You know, I wasn't in the room when they did it.
Uh 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 Representative Megan Blanks
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.
That press conference was held back on Friday by the House and Senate.
The topic,
Idaho's abortion laws didn't give out a
completely accurate explanation of the situation.
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.
Blanks
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.
We want to make sure that legislators hear the voices of physicians and,
and front line health care providers as far as what's going
on and how this is impacting their day to day care.
Lauren Coulson was supposed to speak to lawmakers at the event.
Here's what he wanted to convey. Just here's what it's like.
Here are the struggles that we're having right now
and so that our legislators can know uh on a firsthand basis
what it's like for us as physicians right now.
He believes some lawmakers will remain in the dark,
not knowing what they don't know as a result of the canceled event.
Lawmakers who in their own right aren't medical experts
are sometimes having a difficult time understanding why we can't just stop
doing abortions and continue providing ob care and reproductive care as we were
uh before just without abortion.
And just to explain those situations and those complications that arise
that uh maybe they didn't think of before when this law was passed for lawmakers,
time is running out for the 2024 session.
Still Democrats and Republicans know there's a
major conversation that needs to continue.
I think they were really afraid of the information
that was gonna come out of this hearing.
Um And I think they were afraid of having more
of a spotlight sean on essentially the disaster
they have created with this abortion law.
They were trying to have a, a conversation to try to come together,
get us all on the same page
and then they felt like essentially a bomb went off and,
and then it gets difficult to have the discussion.
So now you're gonna 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.
Another factor in all of this is IVF in vitro fertilization.
You may have seen the news in the State of Kentucky,
their abortion laws inadvertently or intentionally depending on who you ask.
It actually criminalized IVF or in vitro fertilization.
So here in the gem state,
there's been a lot of talk about it and part of the problem
between the Republicans and the Democrats is on the house floor last week.
There was a speech made by Representative Brooke Green,
a Democrat and she basically said that I have a
piece of legislation that's going to get read across the.
But we need to have IVF in state code and Brian kind of the hiccup in this whole
thing is that there is a petition that was circulated and I know you can't see it,
but take my word,
there's a petition that was circulated across
the State House that essentially says,
OK, we understand that IVF is important.
We want to make sure that Idaho families can use IVF.
And there is the way that they say it is that after a diligent legal inquiry,
they've concluded that there's no statutory obstacle
to the continued offering of this important,
basically saying we don't need to make a law about IVF because it's legal,
our abortion laws don't mess with that.
Some people,
some Republicans were upset that Representative Green got on the floor and,
and the word impugn comes up kind of talking about what, you know,
Republicans could believe on IVF.
So
the whole thing kind of is very messy and in very complicated situations.
So we don't need a lot about something that isn't happening in Idaho.
Got that write that down. Ok.
I guess my question for Representative Blank Smith though is,
is
it
mongering from the left if it's coming directly from the doctors?
And that's a, that's a, it's a good question.
But uh Representative Blanks Smith also wanted to add into
the conversation that there are things especially that she's carried
that take care of pregnant women and make sure that
that pregnant women in Idaho are taken care of.
It didn't make the story but a sound bite
that I have with Representative Blanks Smith that says,
if we're gonna live in the condition that we, we've created with the abortion laws,
we need to take care of women.
So I think there were some in the Republican camps that say, I,
I don't know if there was attention given to what we are doing.
So
depends on who you ask. Ok. All right. Thanks Joe.