Idaho GOP rejects platform change allowing abortion to save person’s life

Idaho’s Republican Party on Saturday adopted language to their platform that supports the criminalization of abortion in all cases, rejecting an amendment that would have supported allowing a person to get an abortion to save their life.

Delegates at the state’s GOP convention in Twin Falls approved changes to the party’s platform that went further than existing language classifying abortion as murder from the point of conception. The new language backs criminalization of all abortions in Idaho, according to the Idaho Capitol Sun.

Scott Herndon, who is running unopposed for a state Senate seat, proposed the amendment, which he called a “declaration of the right to life for preborn children.”

Herndon said even in the cases where a person’s life is endangered, doctors should not be giving priority to the person over the unborn child.

“We will never win this human rights issue, the greatest of our time, if we make allowances for the intentional killing of another human being,” Herndon said, according to the Capital Sun.

An amendment was adopted that supports excluding miscarriages from criminal penalties.

Idaho is set to become one of the strictest states in the country on abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the nearly 50-year constitutional right to abortion.

The state passed a trigger law in 2020, which was designed to go into effect 30 days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The law criminalizes all abortions except in the case of rape or incest or to save a person’s life.

In April, Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) signed another law that bans abortions after six weeks and which allows private citizens to file legal claims against abortion providers.

Idaho’s Supreme Court will hear a challenge to both laws in August.