Some select paragraphs:
Across Idaho, doctors are leaving, looking for states where politics don’t dictate how they practice medicine. The consequences of Idaho’s anti-choice laws hit Sandpoint fast and hard, hollowing out medical care for women within months. For years, the town had a maternity ward that delivered as many as 350 babies every year – now it has nothing. The OB-GYN ward shut down this spring and doctors have been fleeing the state in a steady stream, seeking shelter in places where their work doesn’t put them at risk of criminal charges or big lawsuits.
It’s become a gamble, getting pregnant and giving birth in a place that no longer has a maternity unit or any obstetricians. Sandpoint is small, fewer than 10,000 people, but it’s been a medical hub for a rural region of 50,000 in north Idaho, Montana and Washington.
Idaho is one of several states that had trigger laws: immediate abortion restrictions that went into effect when Roe v Wade fell a year ago. In August of 2022, the state enacted a near-total ban on abortion with exceptions only if the mother’s life is in danger, or in the case of rape and incest. Those instances require a police report to be filed. The state also adopted what it called an “abortion trafficking” ban, which bars taking minors to other states for abortion care. Family members can sue doctors for thousands of dollars if they perform an abortion, and doctors may face criminal fines and even prison time.
Idaho also became the only state in the country to stop tracking maternal mortality rates. Activists say it’s like they don’t want anyone to know how deadly their decisions might be.
This is not a feel-good story, folks. But I'm stating the obvious.
The picture of the OB-GYN doctor standing in her garage with her packed belongings made me quite sad. And for pregnant mothers having only the support of a midwife in a region of small towns totaling 50k people - while adequate care is hours of driving away - is unfathomable.
Further in the article, there's this interesting line:
This point appears to be inaccurate considering there are a number of States that proceeded to enshrine abortion rights in their own constitutions (or otherwise protect abortion access by law). Some have even expanded abortion care. The Center for Reproductive Rights makes this clear:
https://reproductiverights.org/maps/abortion-laws-by-state
I'm gathering that is why the aforementioned doctor is moving to Oregon. (See how Oregon is depicted in the above map...) I would imagine other OB-GYN doctors are doing the same.
It's been fun watching the MAGAs crash and burn in recent years and Trump getting arrested every few weeks. But the damage that the Christofascists have done to women - and other marginalised communities - is grave indeed.
Enshrining abortion rights in state law will be meaningless if Republicans gain control of Congress and write new laws restricting or abolishing abortion under federal law. Lindsey Graham already introduced a 15 week abortion ban. They could also go with a 6 week ban like Texas instituted shortly before Roe v Wade was overturned or they might even find a way to classify all abortion as murder under federal law.
State law doesn't trump federal law. At best, states might choose not to enforce the federal law and leave it up to federal agencies to police and enforce.
It doesn't but marijuana is also still illegal federally and several states have passed laws to legalize it.
Like any law, it has to be enforced to matter. Most hospitals aren't in federal land (though military would be fucked).