Supporters of ballot measure to end Idaho’s strict abortion ban turn in nearly 110K signatures

Boise resident Betts Disney said she hasn’t really been involved in political activism since she went to anti-Vietnam War marches as a child. However, that changed a couple of years ago when she heard one of the lead organizers talk about a proposed ballot measure to end Idaho’s abortion ban. 

She told the Idaho Capital Sun that in addition to her “belief of women’s rights to decide about their own bodies,” she was motivated to volunteer as a signature gatherer because of encouragement from the group leading the effort, Idahoans United for Women and Families.

Disney said she collected about 500 signatures on her own. 

“I’m very, very proud of that,” she said. 

She was one of a couple hundred volunteers and supporters who gathered Thursday in the Idaho state Capitol rotunda in Boise to turn in nearly 110,000 signatures collected to qualify the proposed abortion-rights initiative for the November ballot. 

The proposed initiative would legalize abortion until fetal viability or in cases of emergency. It would also enumerate rights related to reproductive health and privacy in medical decisions. 

A spokesman for the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office said Thursday that the office could confirm it received the boxes of signatures, but wouldn’t be able to confirm if all of them were verified and the measure qualified until later. 

Speakers laud volunteers’ action after inaction by Idaho Legislature 

Idahoans United Executive Director Melanie Folwell told the crowd gathered that the group would “complete one of the oldest acts of citizenship in our democracy.” 

“We petition our government,” Folwell said. 

In Idaho, a ballot initiative allows residents to directly propose and decide whether to enact a new law. To qualify for the ballot, initiative supporters must collect the signatures from a total of at least 6% of registered voters statewide, which must include 6% of registered voters in at least 18 of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts. 

If it does qualify for the ballot, it would take a simple majority of votes in November to pass. 

Folwell confidently told supporters in the Rotunda, “make no mistake, we have qualified to be on the ballot in November.” 

Idaho’s laws prohibiting abortions carry felony penalties for the doctors providing the procedure and the loss of medical licensure, as well as the threat of steep civil lawsuits from family members of an aborted fetus. Idaho doctors have asked for more clear medical exemptions to the ban. 

The law includes an exemption to prevent the death of the mother – but not to protect her health – and narrow exemptions for cases of rape and incest in the first trimester with a police report. 

The Idaho Constitution allows voters to use the ballot initiative to pass laws without the Legislature. 

Members of the Idaho Legislature have discussed changing the law to allow abortions to protect the health of the mother, but no proposal has advanced. 

“We have asked our Legislature to act,” Folwell said. “They have heard stories that would break anyone’s heart and move anyone with a clear moral compass to rapid action. But make no mistake, for four years in these halls they have failed to act. But here in Idaho we retain something powerful, a citizens ballot initiative, a tool of direct democracy when our Legislature will not act. So we acted.” 

Supporters celebrate milestone, but acknowledge it’s ‘not the finish line’ 

Speakers at Thursday’s event celebrated the accomplishment of gathering sufficient signatures to qualify for the ballot — something that’s only been done three times in the last decade in Idaho. 

Of the three initiatives that made it onto Idaho ballots in the past decade, just one passed. In 2018, voters approved the expansion of Medicaid. Since then, there have been multiple efforts by state lawmakers to repeal that expansion, but none have succeeded. 

The Idaho GOP at its summer meeting last month approved a resolution to call on the Legislature to repeal the abortion initiative should it pass in November. 

“Today is a remarkable celebration, but we also know that this is not the finish line,” said Hailey resident Desiree Ballis at Thursday’s event. “This is a milestone, and the hardest work begins now.” 

Ballis said that she and her husband Morgan Ballis, who is the Blaine County sheriff, became personally invested in the issue of abortion rights after she received a fatal fetal diagnosis during her 20-week anatomy scan. The diagnosis meant her son would not be able to live outside the womb. 

Idaho’s abortion laws, which carry felony prison penalties, do not have an exception for fatal fetal diagnoses. The family traveled to Salt Lake City to end the pregnancy. 

“No family, no woman should ever have to navigate what we navigated,” Desiree Ballis said. “It was the most devastating and horrific day of my life, and the news that I got from doctors was received on a highway between here and Salt Lake City, and that’s why this matters so much.”

Anti-abortion demonstrators also gather to oppose initiative

Around a dozen protesters also gathered at the Capitol that were affiliated with the national anti-abortion group called the White Rose Resistence, named after but not affiliated with, the anti-Nazi German resistence group. Their signs included messages such as “abortion is murder,” “death is not welcome here,” and “the violence of abortion must end.” Multiple signs also depicted images of aborted fetuses. 

James Morrison, who lives in Ada County, said he connected with members of the White Rose Resistance group at an event where he was talking about the Gospel. He said he’s strongly motivated by his religious beliefs to prevent abortion. 

Morrison and Morgan Ballis spoke after the formal speeches about their differences in beliefs. Morrison said he felt Ballis was “receptive,” and said all he can do is make him think. 

Ballis told the Sun the two men had some “fundamental disagreements” about their understanding of Idaho’s current laws and how they were applied in the situation with Ballis’ family. He said he’s found some shared beliefs that perhaps Idaho’s laws around saving the mother could be cleared up. 

Ballis said he also opposes elective abortion in many cases, which would be allowed under the initiative that he supported. 

“My position was, that is a natural consequence of individual liberties and freedom,” Ballis said. 

“… to me, it really is so simple.”