The BulleTin • Sunday, FeBruary 13, 2022 A5
IDAHO SENATE
Panel introduces bill banning most abortions
Bill similar to Texas law
that Supreme Court has
allowed to stay in place
Lawmakers in
the House of
Representa-
tives debate
a bill March
17 in the
Statehouse in
Boise, Idaho.
A bill was
introduced
Friday that
would ban
abortions af-
ter six weeks
of pregnancy.
BY REBECCA BOONE
associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — A panel of Idaho
lawmakers has introduced a bill that
would ban abortions after six weeks
of pregnancy — before many people
know they are pregnant — by allow-
ing extended family members of the
patient to sue any doctor that per-
forms one.
The legislation introduced on Fri-
day from Blaine Conzatti, president of
the anti-abortion organization Idaho
Family Policy Center, is modeled on
a similar law in Texas that is the most
restrictive in the nation.
The U.S. Supreme Court has al-
lowed the Texas law to stay in place,
and it is expected to remain that way
for the foreseeable future as the legal
options for Texas clinics have consid-
erably narrowed. The U.S. Supreme
Court is also expected to rule later
Dittmer
Continued from A1
A few minutes later, a pickup
drove up, the driver hopping
out and announcing, “Got
some food.”
“Cool,” replied Dittmer.
While the man was putting
the boxes inside the trailer,
a woman with him climbed
out of the passenger seat and
briefly played with Dittmer’s
dog.
“People bring stuff by all the
time,” Dittmer said. He shares
food with others living nearby.
“I’ve just got food and cig-
arettes and that kind of stuff,
things to help out, you know,”
he said. “Any canned food I
get, I just kind of set it there,
and people come in and they’re
hungry and stuff, and they get
it and eat — something like
that. We just kind of do that
little thing between us. We’re
Keith ridler/aP file
this year year in a case out of Missis-
sippi that could roll back abortion
rights nationwide.
“Texas has blazed a pathway that
we can follow, and needless to say the
pro-life community is very excited,”
Conzatti told the Senate State Affairs
Committee on Friday. “We can save
more than a thousand babies a year
from the horror of abortion.”
Shortly after the bill was intro-
a little community here, just
our little area right here. What
we’re doing is homesteading.”
The annual Point-in-Time
Count was on Jan. 24, accord-
ing to Katie De Vito, home-
less outreach coordinator for
Deschutes County Behavioral
Health, one of several agencies
providing outreach to people
here.
She estimates there are be-
tween 175 and 200 people
living in this portion of De-
schutes National Forest.
Just over the past year, the
population “has grown im-
mensely,” De Vito said. “We’ve
seen a rise out there for mul-
tiple reasons. Different camps
getting cleaned up in town
and (people) moving out there
more. It’s totally different with
who you ask, why they’re relo-
cating out there.”
Dittmer, too, brought up the
high cost of rents: “It’s just ri-
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duced on a party-line vote, Planned
Parenthood Alliance Advocates of
Idaho issued a statement criticizing
the legislation as an “end-run around
the constitutional right to abortion.”
Under the legislation, even ex-
tended family members like a grand-
parent or uncle could sue a doctor if
they believe the physician has per-
formed an abortion on a relative after
six weeks of pregnancy. Legislation
attempting to stop abortions after the
six-week mark is sometimes referred
to as a “heartbeat bill,” because six
weeks generally marks the time that
a vaginal ultrasound can first detect
electrical activity in a group of embry-
onic cells that may later develop into
part of a fetus’ heart.
Sen. Michelle Stennett, a Demo-
crat from Ketchum, asked Conzatti
why he needed to “delve so far into
the familial line,” allowing relatives
who would otherwise have no claim
on any child resulting from the preg-
nancy to have a say in a patient’s pri-
vate health care choice.
Also, it could open the door for
abusive family members to weigh in
on a personal health matter, Stennett
said.
Conzatti said the family members
would be suing the doctor, not the
woman.
“If this were to become law would
be unlawful at that point, so the fam-
ily members would be suing the doc-
tor who performed that unlawful
abortion,” he said.
Boise Democratic Sen. Grant Bur-
We’re a little
community here, just our
little area right here.
What we’re doing is
homesteading.”
Duayne Dittmer , 58, has lived at a camp off of China
Hat Road for almost three years
diculous, ridiculously out of
control. I don’t even know how
the heck that you can get that
kind of rent. It’s just unbeliev-
able to me.”
The majority of the camping
individuals De Vito interacts
with are holding down jobs,
goyne said the bill was unconstitu-
tional because it would put an undue
burden on women seeking health care
in violation of the landmark ruling
in the abortions rights case Roe vs.
Wade.
“The mere passage of this legisla-
tion is intended, and will cause, every
abortion provider in Idaho to stop
providing abortions in this state. That
is an undue burden on a constitu-
tional right,” he said.
Mistie DelliCarpini-Tolman, the
state director for Planned Parenthood
Alliance Advocates, said in a prepared
statement that the legislation “is sick,
and it is wrong.”
“All Idahoans deserve the freedom
to decide what is best for ourselves.
But instead of fighting for our free-
doms, these legislators are deputizing
everyday Idahoans to become intru-
sive vigilantes who spy on their fam-
ily members for cash rewards,” Delli-
Carpini-Tolman said. “This bill is an
attack on our privacy and endangers
everyone’s safety — all in the name of
ending access to an essential health
care service.”
she said.
“Transportation can be dif-
ficult, so there’s folks that are
walking the necessary miles
a day to get to and from their
jobs,” she said. Others are on a
set income through Social Se-
curity Disability payments, or
for one reason or another can’t
afford our absurd rent here.”
Many people are “one
missed paycheck away from
falling into a very similar situa-
tion as all of these individuals,
especially just with the rising
rent and lack of affordability
here in Central Oregon,” she
said.
Both Dittmer and De Vito
said that water and trash re-
moval are two recurring issues
in the area.
“Water’s always tough,”
De Vito said. “We take it for
granted, filling up our water
bottles and drinking that for
the day. They have to be a lot
more cautious of how much
they’re using at a time.”
Agencies such as Central
Oregon Veterans Outreach
regularly deliver water to the
China Hat area, and Dittmer
and others with running vehi-
cles will also drive into town
and bring back water for oth-
ers.
“I’m fortunate that I have a
vehicle to do that with. Some
people don’t, so I help a lot of
people out getting water and all
that kind of stuff, and food and
groceries,” he said.
Dittmer isn’t sure what’s next
for him.
“I wasn’t really planning on
staying here as long as I did,
but it’s kind of hard to travel
around, so I’ve been just stay-
ing here for the meantime,”
he said. “I’m just going day by
day.”
e
Reporter: 541-383-0349,
djasper@bendbulletin.com
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